Ethics [Thursday, September 16, 2nd period]

[sith_happened]

"'Do unto others as you would have done unto you,'" Anakin quoted as the students found their seats. "On this planet, that phrase is known as the Golden Rule. It sounds quite altruistic, which might be why they are more than a few more cynical versions of it around: 'do unto others before they can do unto you,' and the like. The rule also seems to be assuming that everyone wants the same things done to them. But what if you don't mind getting poked in the stomach? Does it follow that you could aimlessly poke people? What if you don't see anything wrong with stealing, or killing, or hating entire groups of people?"

He shrugged. "I suppose the Golden Rule could be simplified as 'be nice to people, so 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."

Comments

Re: Answer one of the many, many questions! [9/16]

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"There is a difference between finding something offending or not, and deciding that since it doesn't affect you, then it shouldn't affect anyone at all. That's really childish, and, in its own way, offensive." She shrugged, since she didn't think people that way would actually stop to think about it. "It's like an allergy; I might not die if I eat peanuts, but because of that I shouldn't be careful that someone next to me might or might not be allergic." It was a little exaggerated, but she thought the idea was there.

"I guess it's just a way to say something complicated in a simple way? Be nice and people will be nice to you, the idea isn't to see the fact the world doesn't work like that, but to set an example so more and more people act that way?"