fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, January 19, 2nd period]

"Today we talk about something called the Golden Rule, a concept which unites many of the separate religions on this planet," Anakin began as he leaned against his desk and stared around the classroom. "It sounds altruistic: 'do unto others as you would have done unto you', but there seem to be a few 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 anything 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?"

He smiled. "I like to ask nice, easy questions."

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"Why?" Anakin asked. "For some of them, the injustice is happening far away and not to anyone they know."

"And that makes it easy for them to overlook," Leia agreed. "They may think they're safe. But the more injustices that occur, the harder it becomes to ignore. Only those without conscience can completely ignore the suffering of others, and they'll have to act to end it."

"And what would an unjust government's reaction to that be?" he replied.

"To strike down or imprison those that act against it," Leia admitted. "But to continually ignore those who are mistreated completely throws out the Golden Rule, because you wouldn't want someone to ignore your suffering."

"But they aren't suffering," Anakin said, smiling wryly. "They're just trying to bring order to an unruly universe and morals just get in the way of that."

"Order without morals is just tyranny," Leia said. "It's evil."

Anakin's smile widened. "Good."

His praise pleased her more than she was willing to admit. She settled for a polite "Thank you" instead.

Ethics [Tuesday, January 19, 2nd period]

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!

Re: Answer one of his many, many questions!