Ethics [Thursday, September 30]

[sith_happened]

Anakin had backed himself up against his desk looking a little hunted as a unicorn talked to him. "You're so tall," it was saying happily. "And have such nice blue eyes--"

"Um, right," he said, turning his attention to the class. "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.

"Oooh, chocolate!" the unicorn squealed. "That's so nice!"

Anakin ignored the unicorn as he 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."

"That's really smart," the unicorn commented.

Anakin moved on. "Isn't envy fun? Under its grip we never concentrate on the gifts we have been given."

"Like your hair," the unicorn added.

"Instead we focus on what others have that we want," Anakin said as his cheeks heated. "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?"

He looked around. "And where did that rainbow come from?"

The unicorn looked embarrassed.

Comments

Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

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

Of course, if you also want to hypothesize about where the rainbow came from, feel free...

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

"First by finding out what the person they wish to manipulate likes and dislikes," Rosalind said, her voice level and cool. "And then comparing those lists against what they, the manipulator, can afford to spare in pursuit of their particular goals. Different goals require different measures and the effort needed to manipulate someone may not be worth it."

A pause.

"Some, too, are harder to manipulate even if you offer them something they adore." Which sounded a bit awkward on her tongue but Rosalind ignored that.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[furnaceface]

//I suppose if you find a person who isn't easy to manipulate on envy alone, th'challenge rests in making them think that they need whatever that item is that you have, and they don't.//

Jono, for example, adored chocolate. He sure as hell didn't need it. And he couldn't make any use of it when he had his hands on it. And so trying to manipulate him using it would be a bit of a challenge.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[give-areason.livejournal.com]

Rosalind nodded to concede his point. "Which is easier said than done in many circumstances unless you are dealing with a very immature individual."

Not to mention that the lengths involved quite often went past most peoples' moral lines.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"Is there a difference between envy and greed?", asked Zatanna, although more to herself than to anyone else. "If I was envious of someone with a chocolate bar, seeing how I didn't get one, I would probably be a little more hostile; you know, envious. But if I activelly worked to get a chocolate bar for myself, even if it meant to do, um, unholy alliances, that would be greed. I don't need to be have envy to have greed. And it sound as if people usually manipulate the greedy ones."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

"They're separate but related concepts," Anakin said. "Envy is a desire to have something that someone else has--chocolate, power, girlfriend, et cetera. Greed is the desire for more than what you need--all of the chocolate, all of the power. Greed doesn't necessarily require interaction with other people. Envy demands it."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[talks-backwards.livejournal.com]

"I suppose...if you don't tell people you are envious, they won't know." People with a lot of envy tended to trash the ones that made them that way too, so it made sense. "But I don't know if it's the ones with envy that can be manipulated. I mean, if I'm envious, why would I listen to the one that has what I want? The obvious 'do this and I'll give you that' sounds like something more on the greed side; if I had envy of someone, and a poor set of morals and ethics, I would try to get whatever I want by force before playing someone's game."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Playing on someone's need to keep up with others?" Scully asked, as the unicorn nuzzled her hair. She set her jaw, and resisted the urge to swat it. "It's classic advertising. 'Everyone has this, you should have it to.'"

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

"It explains why even one person bought a Snuggie," Anakin said dryly.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully choked on a laugh, and worked on damping down a grin. "Maybe they're fashionable on some planet?... So, that's envy of things. Envy of someone else? I don't know, it's certainly a possible gambit, although it seems unnecessarily complicated. I think that's a basis for a couple Shakespeare tragedies, though."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"I suppose mockery comes to mind," Wesley said, totally thinking of someone he knew. "By making somebody feel, er, insufficient or somehow lacking by not having something they want, one can make them more... er, malleable."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[didntchewgrass.livejournal.com]

Elphaba nodded. "Exactly," she said, glad someone else brought it up. "And there's a mulitude of things you can make someone feel inadequate about. Some people just have more obvious things."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[wesleynotponcy.livejournal.com]

"Yes, quite," he agreed emphatically. "A lack of talent, for instance. Or intellect."

Both of which, yeah, he was used to being ridiculed for.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Most of my own experience," William said, trying his best to stifle a yawn, "has been that those who are bigger and stronger often take things from the ones who cannot defend themselves, and then seek to taunt them with the knowledge that their own property is now in someone else's possession."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

"And how would that serve as an effective tactic?" Anakin replied. "If the question isn't too dull for you," he added.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[faithandscience.livejournal.com]

"Dull?" William blinked sleepily. "Oh, no, it's not. I just had rather a late night..." he stammered. Or perhaps more accurately, he hadn't even slept yet. Thanks, Sherlock. "Anyway," he continued on an attempt to salvage what dignity he had, "telling someone that you'll return their possessions if they do as you ask was one method." he shrugged. "Of course, some were given to simply destroying things, just to remind everyone else of who had power and who did not."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[azuldragon.livejournal.com]

"Envy is a very easy thing to capitalize on," Azula said. One of the unicorns complimented her hair and she accepted this with an imperious smile. She might not even kick them for the fun of it. "I do want to ask where these creatures spring from."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

"Me either," Anakin said, "but I wish they would return there as soon as possible."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[nohaircutsplz]

Medusalith didn't know much about envy, personally. Jealousy was more her game, and there was a subtle, but important difference. "I suppose you could...make it appear that you can give them that which they envy?" she suggested. "Or hold it over them that you have it and they don't."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

"Both is ideal," Anakin said nodding. "Make the knowledge you supposedly have access to very difficult to obtain, talk it up, then make the other person do something to show they are worthy. If you work it correctly, they're too far down to notice when the rug gets yanked out from under them and either you don't have the knowledge you claimed to or you weren't planning to share it anyway."

Freaking "I can teach you to save people from death" Palpatine.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"Envy is pointless," Squall grumbled. "And it makes people do stupid things. If a person has something that other people wish they had, the weak-minded fools will sometimes follow them around and fawn all over them, like it can somehow rub off on them."

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

"Doesn't that make them easier to manipulate, then?" Anakin asked.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[notagoose]

"They can find out what the person desires and indicate that they can get it for them if they follow their orders," Goose said, thinking of Wolf Den where the type of situation was almost a daily routine.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[sith_happened]

"Good," Anakin said, nodding.

Re: Answer the discussion question [9/30]

[squire-hand.livejournal.com]

He held up a hand, as if weighing. "Through fear and greed. Stick and carrot. Threaten them, intimidate them, hurt them until they do what you want. Threaten their family, their work, their joy."

He held up the other. "Show them the carrot. Show them something they want, if only they comply, just this once, because they deserve it or because it is just a little rule to bend."