fandomhigh | Ethics [Thursday, February 14, 2nd period]

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ethics

Ethics [Thursday, February 14, 2nd period]

"Good morning," Anakin said, giving the students a slight smile as they entered. "In honor of Valentine's Day, I've given three of you a chocolate bar, three of you a box of candy, and two of you nothing at all. Please look under your desks to see which you've received."

He began pacing between the desks. "Some of you might be feeling some decidedly less than loving emotions my direction, or in the direction of the students with the larger amount of chocolate. Some of you might be pretending to care deeply about dental hygiene or ruining your lunchtime appetite in order to displace the feelings of envy you might have right now."

He paused. "Envy is a strange emotion. None of you had this chocolate when you came into the room, nor were you expecting any. Two of you will be walking out exactly the way you came in, and yet you might feel cheated. My questions to you today are: what do you think inside of us makes us envious of what other people have, even if we might have other gifts that offset what they've received? And from an ethical standpoint, how would you use this common human flaw to manipulate someone into giving you something you want?"

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With a 1,2. or 3. 1 gets a candy bar, 2 gets a box of chocolates, 3 gets nada.

Jack Frost - 1

Victor Mancha - 2

Maddie Berry - 3

Surreal - 1

Anna Korlov, 2

Paddra Nsu-Yeul - 3

Be happy or annoyed by your gift!

Jack, having never had a candy bar in his life, was pretty happy with his gift, yes.

Heck, if any of the threes out there could see him, he'd probably even be inclined to share.

Get on that, threes.

Victor -- who was carrying around an orange rose today, and screw you if you didn't find it perfectly masculine -- was happy to get the box of candy, but he enjoyed it a little less because he knew some of the others had gotten nothing. He left the box open on his desk for anyone to dip into if they wanted.

Did it say something about Maddie that she'd gotten shortchanged so much through her life up to this point that she could look at this and go "Well of course" and not actually be that upset?

Yeah, it probably did.

"Do you want these?" Anna asked one of the people who hadn't gotten any chocolate, offering the box to her. "I don't."

If Maddie looked a little confused for a second, it was because she wasn't sure she'd heard anyone willingly give up chocolate before. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," Anna said. "I don't, um. I don't eat." This was not information she usually just shared out, but she couldn't come up with another plausible reason she would be refusing chocolate.

"Well, I guess if you don't eat, sure. Thanks," Maddie said. And then couldn't resist asking, "Liquid diet?"

Anna handed the box over and shook her head. "No. I'm just...kind of a ghost." By which she meant she was totally a ghost.

Miss Possible Future Walking Ghost perked right up at that. "Like... the dead, walking through walls kind?"

"There's another kind?" Anna asked, confused.

"Okay, I guess not technically," Maddie conceded. "I've just heard of, you know, people losing cohesion and things like that."

Totally smooth, yes.

Anna had never heard of such a thing, but then, this was Fandom. "No," she said. "I'm just dead."

It might be obvious even as the words were coming out of her mouth that Maddie wasn't sure whether or not this was the right reaction. "I'm sorry?"

Surreal instantly vanished her candy bar for later.

What? Chocolate was serious, legitimate currency when dealing with females in her world! She wasn't going to share this with a bunch of kids who could just go buy their own!

Anna had no use for a box of chocolates whatsoever, and was therefore looking at them with some consternation.

Edited 2013-02-14 22:26 (UTC)

Yeul did not have any chocolate.

Yeul... was not particularly concerned by that fact.

"What do you think inside of us makes us envious of what other people have, even if we might have other gifts that offset what they've received? And from an ethical standpoint, how would you use this common human flaw to manipulate someone into giving you something you want?"

Jack didn't even need a candy bar to participate in this conversation.

"In some cases, those other gifts might offset the difference, but that doesn't mean they necessarily make up for it. I mean... a guy that's given food in a desert is still going to envy the one that's been given water. I can control the weather, but I don't know if that makes up for three centuries without a real conversation."

Anakin nodded. "And it can be hard to realize what we have when faced with what we don't."

"Right," Jack agreed, nodding a little. "I mean, the hungry man in the desert... he'd probably trade what he had for the water if he was given the option, but he'd still hurt for it somewhere down the road. He's got something that he needs, just... not necessarily everything he wants."

He looked thoughtful for a minute.

"If I had to choose between being able to talk to people and being Jack Frost, I don't know which I'd prefer. I want both. Here's good in that I can actually kind of have that."

"And when graduation comes, then what?" Anakin asked.

"Then it's... right back to being invisible, intangible, and not believed in, I guess," Jack replied, frowning a little. "Unless I can convince my teachers that I need to be held back or something."

Was that a thing he could do?

Anakin smiled. "We don't do that," he said. "We throw you back into the world."

"Or back out of it," Jack replied with a sigh. And then he shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "That's life, I guess."

"It sucks a good portion of the time," Anakin agreed.

Demand better candy!

Fondue for dinner tonight! Mmm, melty cheese.

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Ethics [Thursday, February 14, 2nd period]

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Talk to Anakin

OOC