fandomhigh | Heroes v Villains | Period 1 | Wednesday

Sadly, the students weren't in the Danger Shop today which meant Loki couldn't send them to fake jail in their orange jumpsuits. Alas, he'd get over it but he was still sad. He waited until everyone filed in before starting the lecture.

"Today," he started easily, "we're going to be talking about activism. Activism, for those that don't know, is intentional action to bring about social, economic, or political change. Simply put, you've gotten up off your ass to change things because you don't like the status quo. Now, most of the time, this is seen as a very fucking good thing. And I agree. If things stayed stagnant and the same, this fucking planet would be boring as shit. Activists help change things. Very rarely is it an immediate change, though. It takes time, it takes money, it takes passion and it takes a lot of fucking commitment."

Loki paused and got up from his desk to circle in front of it. "Unfortunately, sometimes people take it too far and completely fucking skew the point they're trying to get across. Look, if you walk into a medical establishment and blow it up because you don't agree with what they're doing? You're not a fucking activist, you're a murderer. The thing you're working to change is going to get buried under your act of violence. Sure, you'll be seen as a martyr to your small group but it takes more than a small group to bring about change. That small group starts it but it takes their time and commitment to try and sway the opinion of the masses. If you're going around killing people and blowing shit up in the name of your cause? It's probably not going to work."

Of course, humanity was a fucking cesspool sometimes so Loki figured that kind of shit might work somewhere. Humans liked their violence. "So, why do you some people go to the lengths they do in the name of their cause? Why do they kill others because they disagree with their ways? I don't fucking know. Humans like to kill each other, simple as that. When there's an easy reason, they like it even more. Hey, maybe they think if they kill everyone that disagrees with them, their cause will be default and they won't have to be active anymore. Let me tell you right fucking now, that won't work. It's been tried in the past and while it's been effective at times, it doesn't work as an endgame. Stop fucking killing people in the name of your cause. Just fucking stop it. A gun isn't going to get people to listen. It's going to make people piss their pants."

Loki...had experience with that one, unfortunately. Ew. "Everyone has the right to fight for what they believe in. If I believe that Principal Winchester was an alien and I wanted to an aliens from administrative positions, that would be my fucking cause and it'd be up to me to convince you guys to agree. Now, if I blew all of you up with a bomb, would that be helpful? Fucking no. If I showed you literature, showed you studies, spoke truthfully, that might be heard more than an explosion. Think, people. Fucking think. For today's activity, I'm going to give each of you a cause. You're going to tell me one good and one bad day to be an activist for that cause. Got it? Good. Go.

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"This is a hypothetical situation and it's supposed to take you out of your comfort zone," he said easily. "So, quit thinking about this being real and think."

Sara looked troubled; the notion of burning books, any books at all, stirred turmoil in her fanciful soul such as she felt she could hardly bear. (The closest she had come to exercising incendiary tactics on anything of a literary persuasion was when Jerry Cowan duped them into buying that awful picture, purportedly of God and torn out of a book, and even then no one could bring themself to actually burn it, and burying it had sufficed.)

Still, if she wanted to act someday, she had best learn to get into the habit of thinking outside her own scope, so she closed her eyes for a moment and searched her store of memorized stories for some inspiration -- and found it in the personage of Betty Sherman's strict father. What if he had decided romance stories (in her more innocent interpretation of the term) were to blame for his impulsive daughter's elopement?

"Why, it isn't right," she suddenly declared, drawing herself upright and affecting a deeper voice and a scowl. "The ridiculous notions those tales put into girls' heads! Would you have 'em all gallivant off after lovers and leave their poor parents' houses empty o'nights?"

This was not entirely the way the exercise was supposed to go, but now she was in her element.

It wasn't what Loki was expecting but he was too entertained to really call her on that. "If that's the way you feel, what should we do with these tales, then?"

He almost added 'sir' on the end but refrained.

"Why, what's to be done, man?" The Irish brogue Sara had laid on the words added an extra layer of scorn to the question; she held up an imaginary torch in one hand. Even though it cut her to the quick to suggest anything of the sort in earnest, she was caught up in the moment, talking as if she was trying to rouse an entire village to ~~march to the Beast's castle and storm the gates~~ action. "Why, put 'em to the flame, aye? Purge the seed of these wild notions afore they take root?"

"And how do you expect to get all of them?" Loki asked. "Search the houses? Search the people?"

Mr. Sherman hadn't, as far as Sara could tell from the story, been the keenest mind in the village, so she had no compunction about sputtering a bit, as if she hadn't thought that far ahead. (To tell the truth, she hadn't.)

"Why," she stammered, "why, of course! Sure an' they're decent folk at the core! Appealing to their good judgment ought do the trick, certain."

"Where'd you get your good faith?" Loki wondered. "You're optimistic."

Heroes v Villains | Period 1 | Wednesday | August 4

Re: Class Activity | Activism [HvV 08/04]

Re: Class Activity | Activism [HvV 08/04]

Re: Class Activity | Activism [HvV 08/04]

Re: Class Activity | Activism [HvV 08/04]

Re: Class Activity | Activism [HvV 08/04]

Re: Class Activity | Activism [HvV 08/04]

Re: Class Activity | Activism [HvV 08/04]