Ethics [Thursday, September 3, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

Anakin walked into his classroom precisely on time and gave the students assembled there an appraising glance as the door clicked shut behind him. If you were late, you weren't getting in. "I'm Master Skywalker," he said in a voice that was intended to carry, "this is Ethics, and we're going to skip the introductions--I'll figure out who you are--and move straight to our first discussion."

He paced around the room, cloak flaring out behind him, as he handed out the syllabus. "Today's topic," he said, pointing to the top of the page. "Self sacrifice: knowing the difference between saving people and being a pretentious twit."

"Any time I ask a a group of people what they would do to save someone they love, they all blither on about how they would set the world on fire, lie, cheat, steal, kill, die, et cetera, et cetera. I've been at this school too long to believe that half of you haven't already been put into this situation and I'm in no mood to hear adolescent ramblings about how wonderful you were or might hypothetically be. Instead I want you to give me a concrete example of a time you admitted to yourself that a problem cannot be solved, and that to sacrificing yourself wasn't a statement, but merely pointless?" His gaze swept the room. "How long does it take for you to realize you can't fix everything by yourself?"

He would hear the replies and choose his TAs from there.

Comments

Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[sith_happened]

"Give me a concrete example of a time you admitted to yourself that a problem cannot be solved, and that to sacrifice yourself wasn't a statement, but merely pointless? How long does it take for you to realize you can't fix everything by yourself?"

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[onlysmokesnics.livejournal.com]

Hayley thought for a second. She wasn't her usual, smiling, cheerful self when she spoke "When they drowned Bianca," she said. "I mean, I was already practically arrested at the time, so all I coulda done was dive in after her, but it wouldn't have done no good."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Is this Bianca the reason why you pummeled someone?" Azula asked.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[sith_happened]

"And who was the 'they'?" Anakin asked.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[gods-gymnast.livejournal.com]

"What if you are the problem?" Maron asked quietly, after thinking about it for a while. "If you can't fix it because just by existing you're the problem. There's nothing you can do but go on with your life."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[longislandiceme]

"...It probably doesn't count if people were actively trying to sacrifice you in the first place, right?" Bobby asked.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[trigons_child]

"I do not think I have encountered a situation like this yet," Raven said quietly. "I can imagine such a thing might happen, but I have yet to confront sacrificing myself or not."

Losing control of herself in the other Fandom wasn't quite the same. That was a mistake, but not a conscious sacrifice.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[glacial_queen]

"When I left home for here," Karla answered softly. "And I'm still working on that lesson. It isn't easy, being a Queen and leaving your people behind."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

That whole week at St Vlad's counted, but Rose wasn't about to tell the whole class Lissa's issues.

"My best friend was kidnapped," she said. "And I wanted to go after her, but I got my mentor and the other guardians first." After a slight make out intermission, but that so didn't need to be talked about even if some embarrassment colored her voice just then. "They're better than I am, and they knew more about how to get her out while keeping her safe."

Which possibly meant it wasn't so much herself that Rose was worried about sacrificing, but Lissa.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[maythrowuponyou.livejournal.com]

See, McCoy had quite a few examples if he took his experiences as a doctor into account but he wasn't quite sure if he wanted to be explaining that in front of the whole class. So he decided to share a more recent experience.

"A friend of mine was, uh--" Vulcan neck pinched and launched out of a shuttle onto an ice planet. "--forcibly removed from our ship and I realized fighting the decision wasn't going to do any good. I would have probably ended up in the same situation as him if I fought back and I was needed where I was so I just let it happen."

And then he bitched at Spock when it was too late to do anything about it and used a truly disturbing horse metaphor. Like you do.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[nevertobequeen.livejournal.com]

Morgana genuinely thought about that while some of the others answered. "I learned that I cannot fight the orders of a king by myself, especially when it puts the lives of those I'm trying to help in danger. There was a young boy who was to be executed, and I attempted to free him on my own, but we were both caught and he ended up right back in harm's way. It wasn't until I asked for help that he was able to be saved. I will admit, it was not easy to admit that I could not do it on my own."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine might have had an example for that if she'd been that other Francine, running off into the woods alone and landing that other Anakin's fist in Arthur's face. But she wasn't, so the only answer she had was, "I don't think I've ever been in that position. The sacrificing part, I mean. There's lots of things I know I can't fix."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo had half a dozen answers to the question, but there was only one she'd be willing to give with Francine there in earshot.

"The minute you realize nobody gives a shit if the truth is dancing naked in front of them waving a frikkin' neon sign, if the truth is a hell of a lot messier than they want to handle."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

Azula listened to the question then shrugged. "The question never came up."

This was the reason why Zuko wanted her in this class.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[weetinyreese.livejournal.com]

"There was a place I lived once, for a while, and it was under attack. At first we tried to get back there to help even though they were so outnumbered no one ended up surviving." At least, as far as Kyle knew anyway. "We had to retreat. There was nothing we could do to help them."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[findingelena.livejournal.com]

"I ... don't know if this is what you mean, exactly," Elena said, slowly, trying to reason out her thoughts. "But I was in a situation once where ... two friends of mine took off, to do that heroic self-sacrifice thing. We could have gone tearing after them, or joined them, or done something else like that. But ... it wouldn't have helped anything, getting myself killed. So I left the world-saving to everyone else. Instead, I ... sucked it up, and went to tend to the injured."

She'd felt helpless, waiting for the explosion to come. But she'd gotten some of the injured children away from the fires. It was productive, and tangible, and real, even if it wasn't heroics. It was something.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Jonas had lived a life devoid of sacrifice until the very recent years so trying to come up with a good example proved more difficult than expected.

"I discovered a horrifying truth once." It was the best he could think of even if saying the words caused him to avert his eyes onto his desk and try to rid his mind of the memory of his father killing that newchild. "Instead of doing anything helpful, I ran away because the truth was only known to me and one other. I wouldn't have been believed."

Escaped was more accurate but he'd been given permission to lie by the Giver so long ago that it was almost automatic to do so in certain circumstances now.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[officetightass]

By the time it was Angela's turn, she was outwardly gawking at the rest of the class. "I've never had this happen to me."

There was totally and completely an undercurrent of What is wrong with you people? in there.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[life_inshadow]

Tara shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Th-th-there's, there's a family thing," she said vaguely. "My mom. I can't fix it by myself, but I w-want to after I graduate."

You know. If she wasn't evil by then.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[icecoldfrost]

"I don't bother." Emma's tone was absolutely frozen. "I'm not one to meddle in other people's problems."

She had let them take Christian away because she had been too scared and confused to do anything, not that there was anything a fourteen-year-old-girl could have done in that situation. And when she'd been faced with the same fate, she had turned and run in the other direction as fast as she could.

There were lots of things Emma couldn't fix. Yet. But she was better with her powers now than she had been then, and at this rate, that list of things was getting smaller.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[abetterthief.livejournal.com]

"You can't fix things for other people," Parker said. "You can only grab everything you can and get out before they try to send you to therapy."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"When the Witch died," he said after a moment. There had been the time when the soldiers had taken Kiamo Ko and stolen away the royal family, but while it had been pointless, he'd tried then. At least, that was what he told himself. Whether he'd tagged along with the soldiers because he would miss them or because he'd been trying to 'save' Nor and Irji and the rest didn't really matter; he'd still been left in a sack in a barn for the Witch to find when she got back. So perhaps he'd learned then how useless he was (she'd certainly repeated it enough times) but putting that lesson to practice?

"I could have attacked Dorothy, or insisted on vengeance, or tried to kill the Wizard, but I knew it wasn't possible. Or even worthwhile, since she was already dead. So I escorted them back to the Emerald City and made due."

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[tasenburn.livejournal.com]

"I prefer not to sacrifice myself, actually," Elle said simply.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[awesomebigsis.livejournal.com]

"I can't say I've ever been in a situation like that," Ellie said truthfully.

She wasn't sure if admitting she can't solve some of her problems at home counted in this case.

Re: Answer the questions! [Ethics 9/3]

[gotyourmateria.livejournal.com]

Yuffie listened to the others and shrugged. "Same as someone else's. Some friends ran off to save the world and I was sent with another friend to rescue people from the city at ground zero. Which, I really didn't get because if Meteor had hit, everyone would have died anyway. I think they just wanted me out of the way and sent a babysitter."

Sometimes, Yuffie did acknowledge what a pain in the ass she could be.