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."

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"Is it really that much less obvious?"

Sparkle made a broad gesture with one hand to the people on his side of the line. And then made another to the people on hers.

"Tell me you can't guess just by looking at us where on this spectrum we'd be standing, girly," he stated, flatly. "Street punks to the left. I've met way too many on your side of the line that decide I'm not worth the time of day, because I'm this many steps back."

It was kind of interesting, chewing on that way of saying it. Of course all of the things that hold people back in life are steps backwards, aren't they?

"I wouldn't have guessed," Sholeh said in a small voice. "I always thought you looked, well, like the way you wanted to look." Did people who were on that side of the line all wear lots of eye makeup and have spiky hair? Sholeh didn't know!

"I never thought you weren't worth the time of day. You're my friend."

Goddamnit Sholeh. Why did you have to be all... Sholeh?

"... Yeah. Yeah, I guess I am," Sparkle sighed, some of the fire draining from his voice. "Maybe you're the exception, I don't know. Still doesn't mean I have to like this exercise."

It felt to him that the teacher had some sort of point to prove, and standing back here, it was hard to shake that feeling that he was one of the people proving it.

Would it make you feel better if she tried being more of a jerk? She could try, Sparkle! If it would make you happy!

"Well, no," Sholeh admitted, sounding a little reluctant to come out and speak up against a teacher. "It doesn't seem...all that comprehensive, I guess? There were a lot of questions I wasn't sure if we--I got right, either. But I do know that right now, I'm looking at my spot on the line and realizing that I hadn't realized that I'd...had it so easy, I guess. A lot of those questions weren't ones I would have ever thought about being important, even the ones I did understand."

"They're pretty important from back here," Sparkle replied, shrugging. "Kinda blows me away that some of that shit- food and books and an education- is stuff that anyone can take for granted."

So... there was that.

"Still, right now we're standing here in a classroom, separated according to where we'd rank on a social scale, first class to the ass end of the spectrum, here. Please someone tell me I'm not the only one that sees something wrong with this."

"I'm not saying you're wrong!" Sholeh shook her head quickly; she didn't want Sparkle to think she thought he deserved to be back there for some reason. "I'm just trying to come up with reasons why we did this exercise in the first place. There has to be a reason!"

The teacher couldn't be so mean or so shallow to rank them this way for nothing, could he?

"...Doesn't there?"

"Question of the day, girly," Sparkle grumbled, shaking his head. "Question of the day."

After this class, he was going to head back to his room, and waffle between lighting fires in his wastepaper basket or throwing the cantaloupe that he'd snitched at the welcome picnic against the dorm room wall.

Or both.

"He has to," Sholeh said firmly. After all, one of the side benefits to having as much privilege as she did was the assumption that authority figures played fair. "I still think that it has to do with opening our eyes to stuff we wouldn't ordinarily see. Maybe you're used to noticing where people fall, but I'm not. And maybe other people aren't either. But we're not going to get anywhere if we stay blind to this sort of thing. And we can really hurt people if we just make assumptions about where we think people belong."

"Speak for yourself," Sparkle replied, shaking his head. "Everyone's pretty much where I figured they'd be."

Because he'd had to be aware of these things his entire life. Pissing off the wrong authority figure didn't tend to end well for him.

"What is it with you people up there on that side of the line and being so worried about hurting our feelings, anyhow? Hand to god, Sholeh, if you start treating me any different because I'm standing back here I'll never talk to you again."

In her defense, Sholeh was always worried about hurting someone's feelings. Except right now, when she was glaring at him. "Sparkle, I touched your naked butt! If that's not going to make me treat you any differently, then why should having you stand on a different side of the stupid line start?!"

Sparkle was silent for a moment. Just one brief moment.

And then he was doubling forward and pretty much going to die laughing, thanks.

"Say that a little louder so the rest of the class can hear, huh?"

Oh good. She had almost stopped blushing. And she didn't know what she would do without all that blood to her head.

"Well, it's your fault for not wearing underwear!" she hissed at him. "And--Mother's third eye! They're all gonna think I'm a lightskirt!"

"And they're going to think I'm interested!"

Look, that was problematic! For reasons!

"Ew!"

So much for mature discussion, here. Especially since they were pretty much hissing it back and forth from eleven steps apart.

"Well, next time wear underwear and we wouldn't have had that problem!"

Why was she still participating in this conversation? Why?

Because Sparkle, that's why.

"Well, don't go sticking your hands down people's pants!"

"Well, don't greet people by giving them noogies and they won't try to wedgie you!"

Logic at its finest!

"There you go, insulting the sacred greeting of my people again!"

... These two.

"And your refusal to wear underwear invalidates mine," Sholeh retorted, folding her arms over her chest. "So, nyah."

"Nyah."

Because they were the most mature. Ever. The both of them.

Ethics [Tuesday, August 28, 2012]

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