fandomhigh | Ethics [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Where are you, relative to the line?

Four steps back.

Atton wasn't even sure he'd been completely lying for most of it, either.

Korra looked down. She was standing right on the line.

That didn't seem quite right.

Peeta was one step behind where he started. It didn't feel quite right, but the experiment was only ten questions and his situation was rather unique.

Seven steps back.

Sparkle was looking neither surprised about this result, or particularly thrilled.

Jim was...right where he started. He was just going to take that as meaning he was balanced and well rounded.

Right on the line.

That seemed... low, considering.

Chaz was five steps behind the line. He wasn't that surprised and was refusing to actually look at anyone.

Sholeh saw that she was three steps in front of the line and turned the same color as her hair. Maybe she shouldn't have taken that last step forward? She was just going to try and take a discrete step backwards. Hopefully that would make her feel less like she was standing out.

From his own spot a step ahead of her, Ulrik glanced over and offered Sholeh a reassuring smile.

Miriam was four and a half or five steps back. Huh. Whatever.

With only one lie, Sia was on the line. She'd be only one ahead if she'd told the truth.

That was surprising.

Anakin realized he was one step in front of the line, which wasn't what he'd expected somehow.

Actually, he wasn't entirely sure what to expect; he'd spend one question thinking he should have been way ahead of the line, and then wonder why he wasn't further back, which inevitably led to wondering what kind of sense this made.

And then he got a little cranky because there was far too much thinking and not enough doing. This introspective stuff was Jacen's thing, not his.

Four steps forward. Ulrik was... not surprised by that. Although he was surprised by the fact that nearly everyone else was so much closer to the line, or far behind it.

Bucky was only five human-sized steps back from the line, which meant there were other people behind him. That didn't seem fair! He was oppressed, &*$#@ it!

He raised a paw angrily. "How many steps back do I get because this whole exercise was oppressive to people of my stature?"

Jessica ended up back at the line. Apparently this was what life as a science experiment was.

Ethics [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

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