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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Lucrezia worried her lower lip between her teeth before answering.

"I should like to think I would still choose to refrain," she said. "Leave their fates to God. But if any of those five were people that I cared for, then I know that I would act."

Especially if any of them were Cesare.

"I feel as though it would help to know if the five were criminals, and murderers, or if the one was a priest, or if somehow the lives were more worthy, but that again forces one to decide."

Also, Cesare was a murderer, and his group would always live, no matter what.

"Plus it makes you judge what a life is worth," Anakin replied. "Are all lives sacred? Are children worth more than old people, or the religious, or someone who's served in the military?"

"People are too complex to be reduced to mathematical figures," she decided. "And what if you take the life, and God creates a miracle to save the five Himself? Then you have murdered one to save five who already would have lived."

She only hesitate a moment before asking, "Does it ever get asked the other way? If you might kill five to save one?"

Anakin nodded. "I've seen it happen," he said.

He'd killed many, many more than five. The one hadn't been saved.

She sat silent for a very long time before admitting, "I'd do it for Cesare."

She did not imagine this was a very good thing, exactly, but she could admit it to herself, at least.

"Who's Cesare?" Anakin asked.

He was betting on boyfriend.

"My brother," she said softly. It seemed an insufficient word for all the things he was to her, and the ways he filled in the missing parts of her.

~~(close enough)~~

Edited 2011-08-31 02:06 (UTC)

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

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