fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Monday

"There are those of us who come here believing very strongly in duty," Ender said. "Others who come here to escape it - and some to who it's absolutely not a part of their lives."

He smiled a little.

"I had a mentor, once," he said. "I was told that people were free, unless humanity needed them, and that humanity never asked us to be happy, merely to act on its behalf - for its survival. Happiness, he felt, was a luxury that at times we could scarcely afford. To opt out of doing our duty at such a time was the worst crime imaginable: a crime of stupidity."

He took a sip of water. "I've met people who disagreed, since," he said. "I've also met people whose lives were so intricately bound to these rules they didn't even know where they stopped and the rules began. Some of you have already made your views fairly clear already, but I'm curious as to everyone else's input, too.

"How important is duty? Do we people all carry some grand responsibility to our species, or should we exist only for ourselves and the development of our self? And if we live for duty, then when does that end? Is there some point where all of us may be afforded personal freedom, or are we perpetually tied to our responsibilities, whether we flee from them or not?"

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"It depends, doesn't it?" Anders asked. "I think you have a duty to make whatever's in front of you better -- but at the same time, a life where you never take the time to make yourself happy sounds like no life at all. I'd say duty comes first when there's a crisis, and the rest of the time your life should be up to you."

"What do you count as a crisis?" Cade wondered. "Kitty up a tree? Pub runs out of beer? Planetary warfare?"

"I'd say you have to consider what else is going on before you start calling things crises," Anders shrugged. "Maybe something like planetary warfare's a crisis no matter what, but if a kitten's up a tree I think it's fine to finish your lunch before you go to help it."

Edited 2014-05-19 14:00 (UTC)

"Or see if someone else gets to it first," Cade said. "Just because you want to help doesn't mean you have to be the only who helps all the time. That's being a sucker."

"Right, and that's another good point," Anders nodded. "If you have special kitten-out-of-tree skills, maybe you should get every kitten down. But if you'd be no better at it than anyone else, it's fine to let it be someone else once in a while. "

Cade nodded back. "Exactly. While you contribute to the 'where's all the ale?' crisis."

"Now, that's what I'm talkin' 'bout!" Joker exclaimed. "High five!" He held a hand out.

Anders was momentarily confused, but figured out he was supposed to raise his hand to meet Joker's fairly quickly.

"What is this?" he asked through a laugh, as he did it. "I didn't just promise to loan you money, did I?"

"What? No, it's a high five," Joker told him. "...Which you might not have, where you're from. Right. So, it just means... It's a little mini-celebration, is what it is. I agree with you; yay, go us."

"'Yay, go us,'" Anders repeated, and smiled. "I like it. It's silly, but it gets the point across. And I like that you agree. It's nice to know no one has to be the hero all the time."

"But that you do have to be the hero when you need to be," Joker added. "'Cause a bunch of these peeps sound like they'd rather let people rot."

"And yet I'm not sure any of them would, if it came to that," Anders said. "But maybe I'm just feeling unusually optimistic today."

"'Unusually'?" Joker asked. "There's nothing wrong with a little optimism."

"How much better?" Eleanor asked. "Are you obligated to clean up every stray bit of litter, or simply to pitch in when the world seems ready to end?"

"Somewhere in between," Anders said thoughtfully. "For me, I'd draw the line at anything where human lives or freedom are at risk. Someone else might only care about their clan. A third person might say they wanted to save animals too, or that theft was worth preventing. You need to go with the best you can do with what you have."

"I've seen people take it too far," Eleanor said, a touch sheepishly. "To say that we're all obliged to save humanity from whatever ills they imagine, and to conscript the world into some kind of war to that effect."

Practical Philosophy, Monday

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