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 - 10

[sith_happened]

"And finally, if your parents or guardians told you that you could be anything you wanted to be, take one step forward."

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[failsatspirit]

Korra frowned, she was pretty sure that her parents would have said something like that, but well, one her bending had kicked in, it wasn't like there'd been any other choices there, not that she'd minded at the time.

Did Katara telling her to be find her own way as the Avatar count?

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[district12baker.livejournal.com]

Heh, no way that ever happened. It would have seemed cruel, Peeta thought, considering where they came from.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[myownface]

Ahahahaha no.

Sparkle stayed put, arms crossed over his chest, and he was scowling. Yeah, screw this class. And everyone in it. And their little dogs, too.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[pursuedthestars]

His dad was dead and his mom was never around. Please, Jim had never heard that from his parents even if he knew he could do whatever the hell he wanted.

He stayed put.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[nottrivial]

Hardly. Alec stayed where he was.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[childhood-taunt.livejournal.com]

Matt took a step forward. His father was a lot of things but he always pushed Matt to study and make something of himself.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[notyetplatypus.livejournal.com]

And this would be the one that hurt the most. Even at the end, his mother had believed in him. Chaz took a step forward.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Could be whatever she wanted? What did that mean?

::There are lots of things we can't do,:: Sholeh whispered. ::I can't run off and be a one-face, now can I?::

=Well you could,= Zeela said with dark humor. =But Zhahar and I wouldn't appreciate it.=

Sholeh gasped aloud--even as Zhahar snapped, *Don't even joke about that!*--and took a step forward mostly to get her mind off of it.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[notconflicted]

Sia didn't move. She was sure that if she'd grown up differently, she would have heard this, but being who she was in the position she was...

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[nonelikemesince.livejournal.com]

Even if he ever had been told as much, Anakin would never have believed it. Not with the constant cautions (spoken and unspoken) against following in his grandfather's footsteps, and not with all the expectations that came with his family's reputation. He wasn't moving this time.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[nomelancholy.livejournal.com]

Well, no. As a third son he'd been given a little more freedom than his elder brothers to pursue personal interests, but there had always been the spectre of duty in the background.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[monkeymonkeydie.livejournal.com]

Bucky got told a lot that he COULDN'T be whatever he'd decided to be that week... so, no movement for this one.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 10

[craftyladyparts.livejournal.com]

Octavius told Jessica EXACTLY what he thought she would be: his greatest success as a scientist. That wasn't 'anything' by any reasonable stretch. She stood her ground.