fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, October 8, 1st period]

"I trust that all of you survived your weekend with your relatives mostly intact," Anakin said, sweeping into the room precisely on time. "Today we talk about something called the Golden Rule, a concept which unites many separate religions on this planet," he said, leaning against his desk and stared around the classroom. "It sounds altruistic: 'do unto others as you would have done unto you', but there's a couple of logical flaws in it. What if you don't mind getting poked in the stomach? Does it follow that you could wander around aimlessly poking people? What if you don't see what's wrong with stealing? Or killing? Or hating entire groups of people on principle? If the practical application is supposed to be you randomly help people because they could be good, wouldn't the opposite be that you could randomly harm people because they might be evil?"

He shrugged. "I suppose the Golden Rule could be broken down to 'be nice to people, and they'll be nice to you' but out here in the real world, we all know it doesn't exactly work like that, and the concept could also be reinterpreted as 'it doesn't bother me, so why does it bother you?' Is this a case of aiming for an ideal and hoping that it will cause a ripple effect of positive things, or something overly simplistic that taken to its logical extreme renders itself useless? Has seeing it on everything from coffee mugs to tea towels made the very idea of it trite, or does it still have a place in the mind of someone trying to lead an ethical life?"

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"That kinda assumes you treat all people the same or something," Katchoo spoke up, "and that's pretty stupid, innit? 's naive, at least. Especially if, say, you don't give a crap about ninety-seven percent of the world, like one percent, and hate the hell outta the other two."

Purely hypothetical, okay? Because the percentages were exaggerated.

Some.

Not a lot for Anakin, really. "So let's say that this is supposed to apply to the ninety-seven percent," Anakin replied, "as a guideline for societal behavior. You might not like them, or care about them, but you aren't going to punch people in the face as they stand in line, assuming they haven't looked at you strangely or cut you off or spoken too loudly on their cellular phone."

...Anakin might also have issues.

"Be a pretty boring society, then, if it was me," Katchoo allowed, leaning back in her chair. "People ignoring each other most of the time. Beats the hell outta trying to take advantage of each other, though."

That'd be the two percent, yes.

Anakin nodded. "Why do you think society isn't that boring? Is it the inherent stupidity of people, or something else?"

"The stupidity helps," Katchoo said, half-smiling sardonically. "How d'you notice you're getting your strings pulled if you don't realize they're there?"

"If you aren't smart enough to assume there are strings, you deserve to get twitched along," Anakin replied.

It was a little terrifying that she agreed with him a lot, huh?

"Or at least," she said, toning it down due to quite a few recent experiences with Francine's insecurity about being called stupid, "if you don't figure it out eventually. Not that most people do. The manipulation's so institutionalized, nobody even thinks about it. Frikkin' sheep."

Did someone say issues?

Oh, Anakin knew from issues. "Not saying that there isn't a use for order," he said, since after all, that was what Sith strove for and Anakin still liked everything in their places.

"Sure," Katchoo agreed. "Chaos is a pain in the ass."

Said the girl whose side of room 505 was a disaster zone.

"There's just a difference between that and going along with everything, not thinking about it because it's easier to follow, assuming whoever's in charge or acts like they know what they're talking about has everybody's best interests in mind." Hello, way to go off the topic, Chewie. "Do unto others, yeah, yeah, doesn't mean they'll return the favor, and if you forget that you're pretty much screwed."

Katina Choovanski: poster girl for optimism.

Ethics [Thursday, October 8, 1st period]

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