Ethics, Tuesday, September 17, 2024

[sith_happened]

Your teachers were wearing very ominous cloaks this week. For reasons.

"Empathy can be considered another fundamental building block of creating an ethical system," Ahsoka began. "You recognise that people who are not you are people and worthy of consideration and respect, and there are a number of peoples throughout the galaxy, usually but not exclusively, gregarious pack-forming ones, who are exceptionally good at extending that empathy outwards."

"And then you meet the other ones," Anakin said. "Venal, selfish, and out for credits and power. But it's not only the Hutts."

"The worst of these not only lack empathy themselves, but spend immense amounts of time and energy denigrating those that do possess it," Ahsoka said.

"Being able to understand another being's perspective is an immense gift," Anakin agreed. "It ends wars. It stops suffering. Someone striving for an ethical life would never seek to cause pain."

"Of course, then there are various games that enable us to explore our darker impulses without actually harming people," Ahsoka said. Was this class going to involve Sims and pool ladders? Quite possibly.

"They are also good places to learn to not to indulge in those impulses to begin with," Anakin said. "Once you go down a dark path, it becomes increasingly easy to justify your actions as everyone else being blind to the true vision only available to you." His lips twitched. "Free advice for the future: if you are the only one who sees things as they really are, the chances are very good that it's you who's wrong."

Not that anyone here had any experience with that. No one! Good teachers just knew these things! Anakin gestured to the simulation around them. "So either explore your darker impulses today here in a place without consequences, or go find something less destructive to do. I will be attempting to cook."

He would 100 percent accidentally burn down this fake kitchen.

"I will be standing by with the fire suppressant," Ahsoka said.

World Mythology, Tuesday, 2nd Period.

[atreideslioness]

"Today we're visiting with a few creation tales from some of the Indigenous cultures of this continent." Ghanima grabbed her handouts from the front desk and began walking up and down the rows, dropping papers on desks. "For me to try and cover the history and mythology of every tribe in a single day would be impossible, not to mention insulting to the cultures involved. A thoughtful, anthropologically sound approach to these stories would take up an entire semester, not a class period."

"Among many tribes there is a strong sense that behind all individual spirits and personifications of the divine, there is a single creative life-force, sometimes called ‘the Great Mystery’, which expresses itself throughout the universe, in every human, animal, tree and grain of sand. Every story, too, is a working out of this life-force. One aspect of this outlook is the major role played in the stories by animals, who often speak to humans and assist them. Most tribes thought of individual members of a species as expressions of the spiritual archetype of that species, which in turn embodied a particular spirit power."

"Another key feature of the Indigenous American spiritual outlook is found in the powers ascribed to the Four Directions, which occur either literally or in symbolic form throughout the stories. These are often represented by particular colours, or by animals. The Four Directions have to be in balance for all to be well with the world, and often a central point of balance is identified as a fifth direction; for example, four brothers represent the outer directions, and their sister the center."

"Indigenous tales include all the types found worldwide, such as stories of creation, and of heroic journeys. However, they are particularly rich in ‘trickster’ myths. Notable examples are Coyote, and Iktome. The trickster is an ambiguous figure who demonstrates the qualities of early human development, both cultural and psychological, that make civilization possible, and yet which cause problems. He is an expression of the least developed stage of life, which is dominated by physical appetites."

"Today we're talking about the Woman Who Fell From The Sky, a Haudenosaunee creation tale, and a version of the story of Sedna, an Inuit tale," she said, quickly handwavily going over both myths, "and we will discuss the differences, similarities, and how they relate to other creation myths you may know."