Philosophy classroom: Ethics class #2, Monday, 2-4pm

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara looks more nervous than excited as students take their seats, but tries hard to school her face into a confident mask.

"Okay, first off - you've probably heard about the assignment. From the radio, if nothing else. I promise you, it's not anywhere near as bad as you're imagining. I won't keep people in suspense - we'll do the debate last, because I suspect no-one will be able to focus until this is out of the way.

Before I explain that, however, I need to make two announcements.


"First, Teacher's Assistants have been chosen. I have a carrot - Major K! - and a stick - Angelus. If you're having trouble grasping a concept, talk to Major K!. He'll guide you through the thinking. If you think you've got a hold on it, talk to Angelus. He'll challenge your thinking, give you the opportunity to clarify your position.

"Second, and related to the latter - this class is not an easy A. At some point in this course you will find yourself challenged and confronted. For many of you, that will be today. If you walk out of this classroom before class is over, and without checking it with me, I may be understandably upset. However, I recognise that if you get angry or upset, you may need some time alone, or away from the group. To that end, I present to you the Emo Closet Time Out Room." She walks to the back of the classroom and opens the door to what previously was a supply cabinet. Inside is what looks very much like a white padded room. "This room is soundproofed. You can cry, scream and punch things all you want, and I will not penalise you for leaving the class or the discussion. Major K! or I will come to check on anyone who goes to the Emo Closet Time Out Room, in case you need help or support. Feel free to tell us to leave you alone.



"Now on to the assignment. Yes, it's a Master/slave exercise. Please don't jump to conclusions about that. There is a difference between slavery and abuse, although the two do often go hand in hand. The rules for this assignment prevent any form of abuse - both Master and slave must have a safeword so that they can stop things at any time. What we're exploring here is slavery. That's all, and that's quite enough. Please, please try not to confuse it with other ethical issues, even the ones that often attend this one.

"The TAs will be handing out to you a copy of the rules, and the guidelines for your role, as well as a badge that will either declare 'I am an Ethics Class slave' or 'I am an Ethics Class Master'. These badges must be worn when you are in your role. If you're not in your role, life continues on as normal. As a further distinction, I urge all of you to adopt another name or title for the role you are playing. To that end, you may call me 'My Lady', Angelus 'Daddy' and Major K! 'Rabbit'."

Jonathan, Kitty, Chiana, Angela, Six, Allie, Lindsay, Shane and Veronica are given Master rules by 'Daddy'
Sydney, Stark, Rory, Archie, Hotaru, John Connor, Paige, Chloe and John Sheppard are given slave rules by 'Rabbit'.

"The pairings are as follows, Master listed first:
Jonathan/Sydney
Kitty/Stark
Chiana/Rory
Angela/Archie
Six/Hotaru
Allie/John
Lindsay/Joan
Shane/Chloe
Veronica/Lisa Cuddy (from Friday's class)
Piper (from Friday's class)/John Sheppard.
Quinn/Bridge (from Friday's class)

Please go with the relevant TA to discuss any concerns you have about this project, or clarify your instructions. In light of the furour from Friday's class, this will serve as today's discussion topic."

Comments

Before class starts

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Any pre-class discussion goes here.

Re: Before class starts

[the4thsister.livejournal.com]

Paige manages to drag herself to the classroom,she's wearing clothes that show no flesh at all, since she'd spent most of last night scrubbing her skin away, she hurts, her life has fallen apart and she's pretty sure a fair few people hate her. The last thing she needs is an ethics class.

"Tara? I think I have to drop the class, I-I'm not up to it right now." She bites her lip and looks at the ground, "I'm sorry."

She slumps against the wall

Re: Before class starts

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

Shane slips into a seat, setting a new notebook on the desk. Pulling out a pen, she brings it to her mouth, worrying idly on the cap as she waits for class to start. Wonder if there's anywhere to smoke around here between classes...?

Re: The assignment

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Professor Maclay?" Rory asks, hesitantly approaching her desk. "Could I talk to you about something? Confidentially?"

Re: Before class starts

[wraithbaitjohn.livejournal.com]

[comes in on crutches, slightly out of breath from trying to dodge the frogs on said crutches while making his way across campus.]

Sorry about Friday. Here's my doctor's note.

[finds a seat near the back where he can lean his crutches on the wall and put his foot on an extra chair.]

The assignment

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Discussion about the assignment goes here, or in the rules posts for attention by your relevant TA.

Re: The assignment

[marsheadtilt.livejournal.com]

Veronica reads through the rules she was given on being a master. She's not sure she actually likes the idea of having a slave, but she figures it can't hurt for a limited period of time. She hasn't met her slave yet since she didn't know for sure if she was registered for Ethics until too late for Friday's class, but she figures they have time.

Re: The assignment

[allie-cameron.livejournal.com]

Allie blushes intensely when she reads the rules for the assignment. She cannot imagine making anyone call her a special name or telling anyone what they can or can't do. She wonders how exactly she was chosen as a master, she thinks she would probably make a better slave.

But, she realizes this assignment might do her good, since she'll need to overcome her natural shyness if she really wants to be a doctor.

Re: The assignment

[shane-mcc.livejournal.com]

Shane accepts the information sheet about a master's responsibilities and places it on top of her notebook, pulling out a pair of wire-framed glasses and slipping them on. Slouched in her seat, she crosses one leg neatly over the other and continues to chew on her pen cap as she carefully reads over the rules again.

Re: The assignment

[chasingangela]

Angela accepts the assignment with interest. It strikes her as a weird and kind of creepy idea, but she's willing to try if Archie is up for it.

Re: The assignment

[defiantlyyours.livejournal.com]

6 shudders. The idea of being a prisoner is terrible, but... he'd never considered how uncomfortable being the keeper would make him. "Ms. Maclay? My Lady? Er, um, I'm not sure... if I'm able to do this. It goes against everything I stand for."

Re: The assignment

[wannabelawyer.livejournal.com]

Lindsey is kind of unsettled by the assignment. But since apparently nobody's going to actually hurt anyone else, unlike the collar exercise in Speech, he'll go along for now.




[ooc:argh! bad LJ! Stop moving my comments around!]

Re: The assignment

[stykera]

*Stark had managed to not hear about this over the weekend. He's Stark, after all, and doesn't really talk with anyone more than is necessary most days. Perhaps, in retrospect, he ought to talk to his classmates more often. Not that he's thinking that now. Right now he's just looking around the room completely horrified because he stopped thinking clearly at the word "slave." He's very, very close to completely freaking out.*

*He lets out an involuntary whimper and tugs at the strap around his neck that holds his mask in place.*


[ooc:I'm so mean to my characters. hee. Somebody want to look at him funny or something and set him off? It'll be fun. Really.]

Re: The assignment

[miss-monochrome.livejournal.com]

[Having spent all of yesterday trying to convince herself to go through with this, Chiana takes the information sheet without comment. While she was trying to be calm on the outside, inside she was just trying to keep herself from freaking out again. The way Beka had explained it once she had calmed down enough to listen, it hadn't sounded.... completely awful. And everybody else seemed to be dealing ok with it. Maybe... maybe she could do this.

And maybe she could pretend that her hands weren't clenched so tightly that her nails were digging into her palms.]

Re: The assignment

[master-of-fear.livejournal.com]

Jonathan's never met Sydney, but he's heard about her and he looks around for her now.

Re: The assignment

[wraithbaitjohn.livejournal.com]

[Shep reads through the rules. Being the laid back sort that he is, it's gonna take a lot for him to get bugged about having to wear a toga or fetch a cup of coffee or whatever. He can; however be heard to mumble:]

This is gonna be fun to do on crutches...

Re: The assignment

[apocalypsesoon.livejournal.com]

"So I'm 'assigned' to... Callie?"

Re: The assignment

[brandnew-world.livejournal.com]

Hotaru kind of... stared at the table, listening.

...Braindead Hotaru here. Looking kind of ill.

Re: The assignment

[sooo_cute]

Quinn raises her hand, looking nervous. "Um. Which one am I?"

Time Out Room

[brambless.livejournal.com]

If you need to use the Emo Closet Time Out Room, it's available.

Re: Time Out Room

[miss-monochrome.livejournal.com]

[By this point she knows that she's going to go through with it, but after watching Stark freak (http://www.livejournal.com/community/fandomhigh/257072.html?thread=12661296#t12661296) over the same issues she was having, she needs to just seperate herself from the rest of it for a little while.]

The debate

[brambless.livejournal.com]

"I'm truly sorry to have overshadowed the debating teams today, and I really do appreciate all the work you've put in. Hopefully, with the assignment concerns out of the way, we can all settle down to listen.

Today's topic is that 'Murder is never acceptable, regardless of circumstance.' Angela, Chiana and Buffy will be debating the affirmative, Jonathan, Archie and Callisto will be debating the negative.

[ooc: Class post will remain open until this time next week. Am happy for debate posts to be slowplayed as necessary. First speakers, if you can get yours posted today or tomorrow, that'd be good, to give the second speakers time to work out their rebuttal.]

Re: The debate

[miss-monochrome.livejournal.com]

"Our team will argue that murder is always wrong.

We will begin by defining "murder." Legally, it means one being's unlawful deprivation of life to another, especially with premeditated malice. Though killing in self defense and the killing of animals and plants for food may be considered murder from their perspective, it doesn't fit the legal definition of murder. This act is always wrong, for a variety of moral and legal reasons, to permanently deprive a creature of life for any reason that doesn't constitute survival."

The reasons not to murder include the following:
* Murder uproots the lives of the beings connected to the one murdered, creating a ripple effect and adding to societal chaos.

* Violence -- and the widespread acceptance of it -- may ultimately lead to more violence in society.

* Murder creates economic costs, including the cost of police, of lost labor due to grieving, of training others to take on the jobs of the murdered people, and of providing state support to the survivors of the murdered person. While natural deaths may also lead to grieving and thus lost labor, murder may cause more stress, and thus lead to additional recovery time. In addition natural deaths often come with some warning, in that the person is old or sick. Murder can happen to anyone, thus eliminating any emotional time for loved ones to prepare.

*All beings have a survival instinct. Killing someone goes against that instinct, and is thus an unnatural act.

Finally, by killing another being, that being is denied the chance to realize its destiny. In theory, any murder could result in the death of the being destined to save the planet."

OOC discussion

[brambless.livejournal.com]

If you wish to snark, eat popcorn or raise any OOC concern, do it here.

If you are uncomfortable with this assignment OOC I need to know about it immediately. IC angst I can handle. OOC angst isn't worth it. If you're not having fun, say so!

Re: OOC discussion

[chasingangela]

OOC I think it's completely inappropriate to a high school setting, especially given the extended time frame. CJ's trust games were confined to a single class session with her constant oversight; Drusilla is canonically crazy. But if you got admin approval on it, my opinion is just peanut-gallery stuff. (Also, I agree that it could lead to some really interesting writing and situations, and I can almost justify it from that POV.)

That said? It's not Angela's favorite assignment ever, but she'll deal. it will probably be extremely half-hearted mastering, but she'll make the attempt.

[wraithbaitjohn.livejournal.com]

Structure wise, how does this work? Do we need to find our partner and work on this? Do you set up situations? And what's my partner's 'nom de plume' so I can find her when I need to?

[chasingangela]

I can't answer the other questions, but Piper is cookinggeek.

[http://users.livejournal.com/sydney_bristow_/]

Sydney shows up to class late, and even then she doesn't look all that well.

[brambless.livejournal.com]

Tara nods as she comes in, finishes up with the student she was talking to, and heads over to Sydney. "Hey. You okay?"