fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, February 2]

Anakin, trying to shake off the feeling that he was coming down with something (he very rarely got sick, and this was annoying him), waited for all the students to sit at their desks before addressing them.

"Everyone look under your chairs, please," he said. A third of the students ~~going by how they sign into class~~ would find a bag with a full-sized chocolate bar waiting for them. A third would find a bag with a fun-sized chocolate bar. A third would find nothing at all.

Anakin waited for whatever grumbling there might be to subside. "Anyone feeling a little ripped off right now?" he asked rhetorically. "Two minutes ago no one had any candy and everyone was fine. Now I haven't taken anything away from anyone, no one's any worse off than they were when they walked in the door, and some of you are thinking very nasty things about me. Some of you have more than you did when you came into the classroom and still feel like you've been given an unfair deal."

He smiled. "Isn't envy fun? We never concentrate on the gifts we have been given. Instead we focus on what others have that we want. It's entirely a question of attitude. Today's question: how would someone capitalize on that very human failing if they were seeking to manipulate others?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Like you're going to get candy!

Maybe.

Check your seat! Do you have delicious chocolate?

"How would someone capitalize on the very human failing of envy if they were seeking to manipulate others?"

If you aren't busy bitching about not getting any candy, of course.

Hello, Griff!

Who is not getting sick. Shut up.

Now I want chocolate. First person in the thread gets a big chocolate bar, second one in gets a little one, third person gets nothing. Then repeat!

Edited 2010-02-02 04:28 (UTC)

Claire Bennet

Bruce Wayne

"By boasting about things they had that other people might not," Claire said. "Or maybe by offering special incentives to people who have certain things?"

Claire bent down and found a chocolate bar under her seat.

She'd probably be willing to share it with someone who didn't get any though.

Griffin O'Conner

Leia Organa

There was nothing under Griff's seat. This seemed to be his lot in life. Anakin was totally earning glares for denying the TA sweets.

Leia had delicious chocolate, but she was totally going to share it with someone who didn't get any. Not that she was copying Claire, but because she was a diplomat, so there.

"You could manipulate others by pointing out that an enemy has something another person is lacking," Griff said, knowing he'd have been fine about not having candy if no one else had gotten any either. Or if he hadn't seen the others find it.

Bruce checked under his seat. There was a fun sized chocolate.

Bruce apparently hated fun because he wasn't going to eat it. He took his training far too seriously to eat junk food if it wasn't going to be socially impossible to avoid eating it.

He was going to donate it to somebody before the end of the period.

Layla Miller

Leia had been too cranky at Anakin over the weekend to ask what she had on her mind this morning, so after class she approached him and said, "When am I going to meet Juliet and Rory?"

Claire felt bad that Griff was stucking TA'ing for Anakin (which she suspected was not an easy TA position) and he didn't get any chocolate, so she went over to him after class.

"Want half of my chocolate bar?" she offered. "I won't eat it all."

"If you have something they want and you don't need, bribery is an easy way to manipulate someone," Bruce said. He held up his fun size candy. "I don't need or really want this chocolate bar. If I wanted to, I could give it to someone in exchange for a favor."

"The real trick is the person you are trying to manipulate," Layla answered honestly. "You have to know what truly makes this person tick. To know what exactly which button to push so when the object of his envy is flaunted in his face, it'll send him over the edge. Then you have him exactly where you want and can make him do almost anything."

Anakin coughed as a mouthful of coffee went down the wrong pipe. "You want to meet them?"

Arthur Pendragon

Arthur had no chocolate, and quite frankly, he was a little confused as to why he should care, exactly.

Right around the time class ended, Anakin's phone rang.

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Ethics [Tuesday, February 2]

Sign in [2/2]

Listen to the lecture [2/2]

Answer the discussion question [2/2]

Talk to the TA

Talk to Anakin [2/2]

OOC

Re: Sign in [2/2]

Re: Sign in [2/2]

Re: Answer the discussion question [2/2]

Re: Listen to the lecture [2/2]

Re: Sign in [2/2]

Re: Sign in [2/2]

Re: Talk to the TA

Re: Listen to the lecture [2/2]

Re: Answer the discussion question [2/2]

Re: Listen to the lecture [2/2]

Re: Sign in [2/2]

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/2]

Re: Talk to the TA

Re: Answer the discussion question [2/2]

Re: Answer the discussion question [2/2]

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/2]

Re: Sign in [2/2]

Re: Listen to the lecture [2/2]

Re: Talk to Anakin [2/2]