Ethics, Wednesday, September 25, 019 [1st period]

[sith_happened]

No snacks today, kids, just Anakin at the front of the class with some deeply stupid hair that he hadn't found time to fix yet. "There's a quote in the Bible, a religious text on this world often used to define its cultural ethics that says, 'But anyone who is dishonest in little matters will be dishonest in important matters.'"

He slid his hand through his hair. "I'm not sure I would interpret that to mean that if you lied to me and said my hair doesn't look that bad, it would stand to reason that you are shoplifting from T&C in your spare time, but there is something to the idea that when you start lying about little things, it becomes easier to lie about big things. So today I want to have a discussion about where your line is for shading the truth. Are lies of omission okay for you? Denials to someone's face when they ask you about something you did but they can't prove? How about denials when they can prove it and you just don't think they want to? Is it different for you to lie to your peers than it is to lie to someone in a position of authority?"

He smiled. "Parents Weekend is coming up. How much of the bald truth of this place will you tell those visiting you? How much will they believe?"

Comments

Sign in 9/25

[sith_happened]

Honestly.

Re: Sign in 9/25

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

Tisarwat

Re: Sign in 9/25

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina

Listen to the lecture!

[sith_happened]

That's right, Parents Weekend! Are you ready for it?

Re: Listen to the lecture!

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette, ready for it?

... Ahahahahaha not at all. She'd been a bird for a few weeks there, she was still catching up, here.

Re: Listen to the lecture!

[following_my_fishie]

Ok, but no. She liked his hair. That wasn't stupid at all. It was colorful and nice!

Answer the questions!

[sith_happened]

Where do you stand on lying? And don't give Anakin that "truth from another point of view" poodoo. He grew up with that stuff and still doesn't buy it.

Re: Answer the questions!

[bookbeltof_love]

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

"Doesn't matter," Nina said, and yeah, she was working herself into a pretty big sulk over the whole thing. "No one's coming for me anyway……………….."

If it wasn't for the promise of hot boys to ogle, Nina would be spending the weekend in her room, ignoring the whole mess.

Re: Answer the questions!

[sith_happened]

Anakin looked sympathetic. "I'm sorry to hear that."

Re: Answer the questions!

[chirpchirpchirp]

Vette just gave a little shrug of her shoulders.

"Sometimes you have to lie. Even just an 'I'm okay' after a bad week counts as a little one, and sometimes it just isn't anybody's business."

And sometimes you just had to merrily let someone else take part of the fall for decorating the Dean's bus! Vette didn't make the rules, she just happily broke them.

Re: Answer the questions!

[sith_happened]

Anakin nodded. "What do you think would happen if you said 'it's not your business' instead of 'I'm okay'?" he asked. "Even though one is true and one is not."

Re: Answer the questions!

[lilac_eyed_lieutenant]

These days, for Tisarwat, lying was like breathing: done mostly without notice and entirely for survival. She wasn't even sure if she'd had a completely honest conversation with anyone since coming here. And she planned on keeping it that way.

Which was interesting, since her best answer to these questions was the honest one, but she was eschewing that in favor of something she thought would be much more interesting. And, she felt, pointed.

"Of course one should always be truthful to the best of one's ability." Her hands, folded securely in front of her. Her expression, slightly vacuous with a faint, pleasant smile. Her shoulders, ticking up in a sheepish shrug. But then, just a little flash of something else in her lilac eyes as she looked at the Dean.

"But if you must lie, always make sure it's based on a truth."

Re: Answer the questions!

[sith_happened]

Anakin definitely noticed the flash but wasn't going to call her on it. "Why should it be based in truth?" he asked.

Re: Answer the questions!

[mother_forker]

"Well, first of all, I'm emancipated since I was 14," Eleanor said when it came time for her to talk. "So if my parents show up it would be a minor miracle. And everybody lies. Why shouldn't I? Let's say hypothetically I lied and said I was a new housekeeper for Charles Barclay-"

Not a hypothetical situation.

"-and I broke into his house to try on his shoes and jerseys. No one was harmed. I got to wear giant shoes. He was none the wiser. It's all good, right? No big deal!"

Re: Answer the questions!

[sith_happened]

Anakin blinked in confusion at this completely random hypothetical. "Why did you hypothetically do it, then? Just to try on shoes?"

Re: Answer the questions!

[following_my_fishie]

"Um. I don't have parents. I don't think my sisters and brothers are allowed to come here," Delirium said slowly, "but if they did, I wouldn't lie." She shrugged, "I wouldn't have to. They know everything anyway."

Delirium considered it. "I suppose I could try. That might be fun."

Re: Answer the questions!

[grandpoobah]

"I don't like lying, because when the person you lied to finds out you lied, then they get more angry than they probably would have gotten if you'd just been honest with them in the first place," Grog said. "Do everyone's parents show up for the weekend?"

Re: Answer the questions!

[goldfishontherocks]

"I'm not sure I could live with myself --" for a millennium -- "if I knew I'd gotten by on lies," Keyleth said after a moment.

She could say this now, being several years away from spending all her time with a bunch of boisterous assholes who were going to spend a good chunk of time just bullshitting their way across Exandria.

She paused and frowned slightly.

"I don't think my father's going to be able to make it, so I probably don't have anyone coming."

Re: Answer the questions!

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Oh, this was the worst class for Sabine, who had probably not outright lied but omitted all the details all the time and let people fill in their own blanks.

"I guess you lie when you have to, and try not to hurt anyone," she shrugged, casually. "That's probably all anyone can do."

For instance, that technically wasn't answering the question and not addressing how no one was coming for her.

Re: Answer the questions!

[handystand]

"Oh, you totally lie if it's for the best," Okuyasu said. "Dishonest means you're lying to hurt someone. If you're protecting someone, that's not dishonesty."

Okuyasu nodded.

"And I don't really need to worry about lying to my dad. I don't think he's coming, and he's still a monster from the thing that vampire put in him, so he doesn't really understand much too good."

Re: Answer the questions!

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"No one is coming for me," Illyana said simply. "Those I live with at home, I wouldn't need to lie to anyway."

"And I don't usually lie. I don't have the patience to be kind."

Re: Answer the questions!

[unusual_sith]

"I try not to lie, but I will if I have to," Lana said, shrugging. "If somebody comes for me, I have no reason to lie to them. Probably."

Re: Answer the questions!

[mylandmyrules]

"Sometimes you almost gotta lie, least by omission - leastaways if you're a girl in God's Hand of Glory church and you hope to have anything resembling a life," Nell said. "I don't like it, but sometimes needs must. I got no interest in being beat 'cause I read a book they might not approve of."

"And it don't matter how much truth they could take about here - which would pert near be none of it anyway - 'cause ain't nobody knows I'm here and I'm guessin' if I can't get home, ain't nobody showin' up." She might have shrugged her shoulders as if she didn't care, but it was clear that she was bothered by this and it showed in how much more prevalent her back woods accent was.

Talk to Anakin

[sith_happened]

If you'd like him to not tell your visitors something.

OOC

[sith_happened]

I'm not reading the TELCON from Trump and Zelensky obsessively, you are.