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

[retired_hero]

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."

Comments

Re: Pair up

[somethingwithturquoise]

"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.'"

Re: Pair up

[retired_hero]

"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?"