fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 1st period]

"Good morning," Anakin said, sweeping into the classroom where the students had been assigned seats. "I'm Anakin Skywalker and this is Ethics. If you're in the wrong place, now's the time to get up and flee."

If you were in the right place, it wasn't bad advice either, depending on Anakin's mood. He paced in front of their desks as he spoke, Jedi robe swirling behind him. "Most classes this week focus on introductions, but there are a few familiar faces in the classroom already and I'll figure out the rest of you as we go along. Fandom, as you might have realized already, is a multi-dimensional nexus where beings from many different places and times come together." He made sure to look each student in the eyes as he spoke. "As such, what you may feel to be moral and immoral might be completely different than the person sitting next to you. I encourage discussion, even heated discussion, but it must be phrased in a constructive way. Responses like 'yes, but that's dumb,' 'yes, but you're dumb', or punching someone are not constructive."

He'd done all of those before, but this wasn't about the ethics of the Ethics teacher.

"I have no problem at all sending you to detention if you irritate me," he concluded. "Now, the unpleasant administrative things out of the way, let's start with our first ethical scenario: If you had to choose between killing one person in order to save five others, or doing nothing even though you know that doing nothing means that those five people would die before your eyes, what would you do? And what do you think would be the right thing to do?"

His eyes slid to Katniss ~~assuming she was there~~. "We touch on unpleasant subjects in this class, some of which might not be all that hypothetical to your life's experience," he added. "If you prefer not to discuss a particular scenario, just let me know by shaking your head and I'll skip you until the next week."

Anakin clasped his hands together. "Now, let's begin."

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"No, it's being smarter than whoever is giving you two really bad options." Ah, idealism was abounds with teenage billionaires.

"Exactly," Lex agreed. "If the game's rigged against you, change it." Was a philosophy that probably going to end up doing Lex more harm than good in the long run, really, but one his dad was intent on drumming into his head.

Ah, but the idealism was so wonderful! And would slowly be crushed...

"Plus how do we know for sure any of the variables are accurate? You could kill the one person and the five others die anyway."

Ground down until there was nothing left but cynicism and a never to be fulfilled desire for a father's love and approval. Any father's.

"Not to mention the fact that once you start assigning value to people's lives like that, it's very easy to keep going, and before you know it you're living in an Orwell novel."

On the plus side, they'd both look fabulous in overly expensive suits!

"Exactly!" Oh, this could only end well for them both. "I'm Tony, by the way."

Especially as Lex had no intention of mixing purple and green on his outfits.

He smiled and waved across the gap in desks. "Lex."

Well, they were no gold and red...

"Are you one of the new kids or do I really need to get out more?"

That's because gold and red actually went together.

"The first option." Though the second might very well be true as well.

They were totally amazing together!

"Welcome to Fandom then," Tony replied with a nod. "Don't freak out when weird stuff starts happening and it's not so bad."

Just repress it all!

Lex was good at repression! So good he hadn't actually realised he'd repressed anything.

"Are we defining weird as weirder than my roommate's father being the pope?" It was an important question.

"Turning into talking, colorful ponies," Tony replied. "The pope thing is new to me."

Lex knew he had been right not to eat the cupcake.

"Me too. But so far it's working."

She rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, so everyone who dies fighting something is stupid? You can't weasel out of everything. Sometimes a shitty situation just is."

"No, but you shouldn't just give up and accept that something bad is going to happen no matter what you do."

"Something bad is going to happen no matter what you do," Jocelyn said, like that was obvious. "That's how the world works. Bad things happen and you have to make sure they affect as few as possible."

"Then find another option! Yeah, bad things happen, but that doesn't mean you should just assume there's no other way."

"You have to accept reality to live in it," she shot back. "The descent into hell is easy and paved with good intentions."

"Your reality might not be one I want to live in," Tony replied slowly. "If that's what happens if I stick to my morals."

He wasn't nephilim. Holding mundies to Shadowhunter standards just ended badly.

She shrugged, dropping the argument. "I don't think we don't have morals. Just that they're not really all that flexible."

Ethics [Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 1st period]

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