Ethics [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

[sith_happened]

When Ethics began, the desks, instead of being set up in the usual rows typical of a classroom, had been shoved to the sides, and a long line of white tape had been stuck down the middle of the room. The instructor was also nowhere to be seen.

This served a purpose: breaking the students' preconceived idea about what a class devoted to ethics might be about, and setting them up for nervous chatting before Anakin arrived.

He did, precisely two mintues late, clicking the door shut behind him. "Welcome to Ethics," he said. "I'm Master Anakin Skywalker. Please set yourselves up along that white line."

He waited until all of the students were lined up before explaining. "There's a philosopher from this world named John Rawls, who believes that most reasonable principles of justice are those everyone would accept and agree to from a fair position. In Fandom especially, we are coming from a variety of cultures and traditions to examine ethical dilemmas, and so the idea of a 'fair position' is a bit of a moving target. The choice that might be right for you might be completely contrary to my own life experiences, but that will not make your point of view less valid."

Anakin began pacing, his cloak swirling around his ankles as he did so. "Rawls believed that to come to this fair position, a magical 'veil of ignorance' must be put into place in order to erase everyone's knowledge of their places in society." He smiled a little wryly. "I'm not saying that at some point, Fandom might not do that sort of work for us and erase your memories of who and what you are, but today we're going to conduct an exercise that's slightly less drastic--one that will make you examine the parts of your life you might take for granted, and how that affects your view on the world."

He glanced down at a piece of paper. "Let's begin."

Comments

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[sith_happened]

"If you were ever called names because of your race, class, ethnicity, species, gender, magical powers, or sexual orientation, take one step back."

Anakin had tweaked the questions slightly for Fandom.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[suitably_heroic]

Yeah, Atton wasn't going to play this by the truth-- at least, not about anything that had happened to the guy he was before he'd become Atton Rand.

He took a step back. Not that it was that far from the truth.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[failsatspirit]

Korra shivered involuntarily, thinking of Amon, and stepped backwards.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

Peeta took a step back because, well, he had been to public school. It was inevitable.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[myownface]

Yeah, Sparkle kind of rolled his eyes at this one. Really, who hadn't, right? And then he took a step back.

He contemplated stepping forward, just to be contrary, but decided against it. Just for today.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[pursuedthestars]

Jim had to think on that one. He'd usually been the one calling people names in jest and no one really could find a reason to call him names so he had to think pretty hard on this one.

In the end, he decided to stay where he was since he couldn't really think of anything that matched the statement.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[nottrivial]

Alec hadn't, though he suspected it would be a short leap to deeming his situation worthy of a forward-step, given implications and things he'd overheard and general saturation of information.

He stayed where he was.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[childhood-taunt.livejournal.com]

Matt pondered this for a moment or two. Would being teased by the neighborhood kids be considered under this? In terms of race, class, and ethnicity... No. And no one teased him because of his blindness. To everyone around he was just a that "poor blind kid."

That hardly met those qualifications. So he stayed put.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[notyetplatypus.livejournal.com]

Chaz tried to blend into the floor but took a step back.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

::I don't think so?:: Sholeh checked. ::The things we're worried about, no one knows of.::

*You were pushed in the mud and laughed at when you started crying,* Zhahar pointed out. *Maybe that counts?*

=Nah,= Zeela's was the deciding vote. =Sure, he laughed at you for crying like a girl, but it wasn't the same as being called names for it.=

Frowning, Sholeh stayed where she was.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[notconflicted]

Well, for someone who was playing her background down, this was a bit worrying...

She could take a step back, though. People just generally didn't say them to her face.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[seeshowyoudie.livejournal.com]

"Do we get a step for every name?" Miriam muttered as she took a step back. She could rattle off a lot.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Well, the Yuuzhan Vong hated the Jedi, so that counted, right? Beyond that, his family was as polarizing as it was high-profile, which tended to invite insults, so . . . Anakin took a step back.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

Ulrik was pretty sure the usual battlefield insults did not count for the purposes of this exercise, so he stayed put.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[monkeymonkeydie.livejournal.com]

Bucky balled a paw into a fist and thrust it into the air, and took a step back.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 1

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

The littlest Bombshell called Jessica all kinds of terrible names that one time. That probably had more to do with the kid being a terrible pottymouth instead of actual verbal intent, but it still counted.

Jessica stepped back.