fandomhigh | Resolving Conflict Without Violence, Wednesday First Period [Week 3]

As usual, Anne was standing at a sort of relaxed attention at the front of the room.

"Welcome back again. I hope that you found the discussion last week stimulating, and perhaps a little uncomfortable." She let her eyes sweep the room. "One of the goals of this course is to push you to think about things, and in ways, that you aren't used to. Exposure to new and challenging ideas can stand you in excellent stead when something unexpected occurs and you find yourself mentally scrambling."

"So. With that in mind."

Anne turned, writing on the board.

"Allowing harm vs allowing harm. As with most complicated questions about morality, whether there is a difference between directly participating in activities that harm someone and standing by without intervening while others participate in those activities is a subject to much debate."

"However, as with any topic we discuss in this class, the goal isn't to simply answer the question, it's to explore the boundaries of the question. If you believe that they are the same, then is watching someone next to you get beat up the same as not going to the nearest big city to find someone being mugged so you can defend them? Or if you believe that there are differences, what makes them different?"

Anne smiled slightly. "Each of you will have your own answers, I suspect, even if you have similar ones. And one thing you'll likely discover that your own beliefs are complicated. For instance, while I personally feel that it is my moral responsibility to defend someone who is being assaulted nearby, you won't find me wandering into the next town." She paused, frowning for a moment. "Baltimore, I think it's called? Anyway, I don't go prowling there looking for criminals to stop and innocents to defend. For me there's a line that has to get drawn related to scope and scale in order to keep moral obligations from overwhelming."

Which, she reflected with a certain amount of silent irony, was a pretty ridiculous thing to claim given what she'd been doing just a couple of months ago. Her eyes drifted to her empty left sleeve for a moment before she realized the silence had dragged out just a little too long and her attention snapped back to her students.

"But enough about me! You all know the drill. Pair up, start a discussion, probe at the boundaries of your beliefs."

She grinned. "Unless you find yourself dying to know more about me, in which case, well, feel free to ask me questions, too. Just know that I'll be asking them back."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Actively or passively!

Summer Smith

Hyacinthe

Khadgar

Feel free to consider it a bunch of philosophical nonsense

Get together and talk about things. Be ready for Anne to possibly swing by and ask you about your thoughts, too.

Hyacinthe's thoughts on the matter were once again complicated, but he;d enjoyed the conversation from last class enough that he was looking around to see if he could find someone to discuss them with.

Anne was walking slowly around the room, and she paused near Hyacinthe.

"Hyacinthe, right?" she asked. "What do you think?"

Summer (no surprise here) had thoughts and opinions, but she also had these distracting butterflies in her stomach due to the finale to the conversation from last week. And far be it from herrrrr to bogart all the flirty French-ish debating to herself, so she was playing it cool, yeah, cool, to give other options a chance. And it had nothing to do with newfound nerves or anything, really, hum hum hum...

"I saw you had a pretty serious discussion last week. So what do you think about this week's topic?"

Was Summer blushing at last week's discussion being brought up? No, no, of course not, don't be silly, it was just, uh, warm in here!

"I think it's a good question," she said, clearing her throat a little and focusing on the topic at hand, "but a little tricky to answer. It depends on, like, so much! Like most things should definitely be left to, you know, professionals, but, in the moment, especially if you're, like, threatening me or my family? Oh, you better believe I'm going to kick some ass."

Anne smiled, and added a nod that might have been approving.

"Do you think that weather the intervention you'd make involves violence or not changes your calculations? If you think you can talk your way through something, are you more likely to step in?"

"Oh," said Summer, "talk it out first. Always try to talk it out first. But some things can't be talked out of. And some things, talking it out actually makes it worse."

Said with a wince that seemed to have too much experience in that sort of thing. Thanks, Inadvertent Nipple Race Wars and Sociopath Space Ships!

"It is possible to antagonize the people you're trying to pacify, it's true."

"Are there cases where you'd be willing to intervene verbally, but if that didn't work you'd just walk away?" That one was hard. Walking away once you'd already gotten involved wasn't easy to make yourself do.

"See," Summer lifted a finger, "and that's where it depends. Because if some guy was, like, holding my brother at gunpoint, and I was all, 'Hey, guy, don't do that, let's talk this out,' and he's all, 'I'm not talkin' out nothin'!' then I'd be, okay, then, I have to save my brother. But let's say he was robbing a bank and I said, 'Whoa, hold it, man, let's have a discussion,' and he's all, 'quit talking or else I'll rob this bank and then burn down this orphanage,' I'd be all, 'yeah, okay, you're crazy, but go ahead, rob that bank, because, dude, not cool, but whatever, this is beyond my ability.'"

"Beyond your ability," Anne repeated thoughtfully.

"How do you determine that? I mean, obviously part of it will be self-knowledge and intuition, but what principles do you use when judging what you're capable of?"

If, for some reason, you need her.

Wednesday birthdays are much better if you take the day off of work. Stupid work.

Resolving Conflict Without Violence, Wednesday First Period [Week 3]

Sign In - Week 3

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Listen to Anne talk about today's topic

Pair up

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Talk to Anne

OOC