Ethics [Thursday, March 1, 2012 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"Welcome back from your break," Anakin said, striding to the front of the class--where the students' desks had been pushed against the walls--to lean against the blackboard. "Today we move away from Kant and onto an American philosopher named John Rawls. He's a more modern philosopher, and the main tenet of Rawlsianism is that most reasonable principles of justice are those everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position. The question, naturally, then turns into 'what is a fair position' and his use of something called the 'veil of ignorance' that magically makes everyone unaware of their positions in society in order to determine if something is fair or not."

He pushed off of the wall and paced down the center of the room. "Rawls also argues that even meritocracy—a distributive system that rewards effort—doesn’t go far enough in leveling the playing field because those who are naturally gifted will always get ahead. Furthermore, says Rawls, the naturally gifted can’t claim much credit because their success often depends on factors as arbitrary as birth order or how you were raised as a child."

He waved his hand, indicating the students should form a line in the center of the classroom. "Today we'll conduct a little experiment in demonstrating privilege. Afterwards, I want you to discuss if such things matter in Fandom like they do back in your home universes, and if not, why not."

He reached for a piece of paper. "Let's begin."

Comments

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[sith_happened]

"If you were raised in an area where there was prostitution, drug activity, etc., take one step back."

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[ancientbschamp.livejournal.com]

Gabrielle decided that rampaging bands of slavers and bandits counted in this category, and took a step back.

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[hurtingzeebo]

Sam's mom's place was definitely on the "wrong" side of town.

Another step back. Grumpily.

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[withasword.livejournal.com]

That went for almost everywhere in Kates's world, unfortunately, and she stepped back without having to think too hard this time around.

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[iwishiwasbig.livejournal.com]

If there was drug use and prostitution in the far suburbs of Milwaukee, Dave didn't know about it. Standing still some more.

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[ihavediabetes.livejournal.com]

Well now he was just confusing her. She was from New York, which had all that bad stuff, but she was from a good part of it where she could even trust homeless people. And then there was Stoneybrook... She took a little step back as a compromise.

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[godofxbox]

Alex's old neighborhood in New Jersey had been really nice, and his current neighborhood back home in New York wasn't that bad, but, you know, they still had their share of drug dealers and whatever. So he took another step back.

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[abitlowkey]

Loki looked thoughtful, but stayed just where he was.

Re: Exercise in Privilege-4

[selfhelphero]

Billy figured just living in New York City didn't count, since the area where he lived wasn't so bad, so he stayed where he was.