Ethics [Thursday, February 7, 2013, 2nd period]

[sith_happened]

"Please set yourselves up along that white line," Anakin said as he strode into his classroom.

Sure enough, a long white strip of tape had been put down the middle of the room and the desks had been shoved to the sides.

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 - 2

[sith_happened]

"If your parents were or are professional: doctors, lawyers, etc., take one step forward. If your parents were or are royalty, or members of your dimension's ruling class, take two steps forward."

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 2

[nips-your-nose.livejournal.com]

Jack... didn't have parents, so far as he was aware. He looked slightly awkward, but he remained standing on the line.

Did the Moon even count?

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 2

[pulseof_life]

She looked down at the line.

Yeul was pretty sure she'd had parents of every vocation by now... and none of them had mattered either way, high or low.

She stayed where she was.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 2

[ultron_junior]

This was one where Victor had no idea what to do. His mom had been studying to be an architect, yeah, but she still needed to wait tables to pay bills. On the other hand, Ultron was a pretty big deal if you didn't mind him being evil.

He stayed where he was.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 2

[mummyspromdate.livejournal.com]

Hmm. What did you do when both parents were deadbeats? Maddie guessed she just stayed where she was, which was less depressing than stepping back.

Re: Experiment in Privilege - 2

[dressedinblood]

Anna's father was a fisherman and her mother ran a boarding house. She stayed where she was again.