Ethics [Thursday, October 8, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"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?"

Comments

Re: Answer discussion question #1!

[glacial_queen]

"The first time you realize that just because you live this way, it doesn't mean that others do," Karla answered softly. "You can be as kind, unselfish, and polite as you like and that doesn't mean that you or people you care about won't become victims of other people's greed, malic, or ambition. And discovering that betrayal can come from anyone, not just people you think fit some kind of 'type.' Discovering that the Golden Rule doesn't offer actual protection means that you have to reevaluate what it means and how you're going to let it influence your actions. "