Email to Dayspring, Nathan
May. 12th, 2004 11:27 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_communicationFrom: de la Rocha, Manuel
To: Dayspring, Nathan
Subject: Ethics
So what, precisely, is wrong with my ethics? They're supple enough to deal with changing realities, and ... well, that's all that really counts.
They're quite supple. I am growing adept at adapting them to changing circumstances. This is how things _should_ be.
Manuel
To: Dayspring, Nathan
Subject: Ethics
So what, precisely, is wrong with my ethics? They're supple enough to deal with changing realities, and ... well, that's all that really counts.
They're quite supple. I am growing adept at adapting them to changing circumstances. This is how things _should_ be.
Manuel
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Subject: re: Ethics
Date: 2004-05-12 08:39 am (UTC)But I think I'm going to try the didactic approach this time, and ask you why you don't see anything wrong with using your powers to get what you want?
re: Ethics
Date: 2004-05-12 08:45 am (UTC)There's not anything wrong with it because they are a part of who I am. It is a question of retaliation. If the risk is low, then go ahead. If the risk is high, then either you pay the price, or find someone _else_ to pay the price, or you try another way.
There's also the question of the goal.
Manuel
re: Ethics (situational?)
Date: 2004-05-12 08:54 am (UTC)Rather more in this format than face-to-face. But then, I'm sure you know that.
You really do have this tendency to oversimplify things, don't you? First you had your safety/sex dichotomy, now this risk/reward/retaliation axis. You may not want to see life as being more complicated than that, but unfortunately, it is. People make it that way. You can smash your way through what you see as games and lies and self-deceptions all you want, but it really just makes you a bull in a china shop.
Another question, then. Since the empaths and telepaths working for my former employers faced no risk when they rewrote my mind and the minds of my fellow operatives, were they right to do so? Was the goal worthwhile?
Nathan
They clearly felt...
Date: 2004-05-12 08:56 am (UTC)In this case, the risk came to pass, and here you are now.
I do not know what their ultimate goal was, so I cannot answer your question more fully.
Manuel
You don't see anything wrong...
Date: 2004-05-12 09:03 am (UTC)Nathan
Of course I do!
Date: 2004-05-12 09:05 am (UTC)Manuel
But yours...
Date: 2004-05-12 09:13 am (UTC)Nathan
You don't want to hear it...
Date: 2004-05-12 09:31 am (UTC)Not for you, not for Xavier, not for Emma, not for anyone.
Well, OK, maybe for Emma. My life is hers. But not for anyone else!
Manuel
Fasten your seatbelts...
Date: 2004-05-12 09:34 am (UTC)But let me try again, because I am hard-headed. I think I may actually see the problem. For you, getting anything less than everything you want, down to the last detail, is going to feel like a personal failure... am I right?
Nathan
Not entirely...
Date: 2004-05-12 09:37 am (UTC)Manuel
So...
Date: 2004-05-12 10:32 am (UTC)Nathan
The world...
Date: 2004-05-12 10:33 am (UTC)If I thought the World cared, which it clearly doesn't.
Manuel
one of my instructors once told me...
Date: 2004-05-12 10:37 am (UTC)Nathan
I have to agree
Date: 2004-05-12 10:39 am (UTC)Manuel
So there's no middle ground?
Date: 2004-05-12 10:42 am (UTC)Nathan
I was taught...
Date: 2004-05-12 10:44 am (UTC)Right now, I'm using you for enjoyment, for someone to talk to, to practice my English with, and to see a different viewpoint. You are likely doing the same to me, plus you have the hope that I will heed your "wisdom" and change my ways.
Manuel
no, actually...
Date: 2004-05-12 11:04 am (UTC)In the user/used dichotomy, how do you account for... genuine acts of altruism? Say, religiously motivated? Or maybe - if I understood what you did say about your Askani dream in reply to the Professor's post - self-sacrifice in order to save others?
Stupidity?
Date: 2004-05-12 11:06 am (UTC)Self-sacrifice for others - that's tougher. I'd say at first blush that it's using the circumstance out of a misguided attempt to appear to be better than you actually are.
But that's a tough one. Many different possibilities.
Manuel
oh, such cynicism!
Date: 2004-05-12 11:13 am (UTC)All right, let's drop the religious issue for the time being. Not sure how I feel on the subject anyway, so it's probably a questionable example.
Self-sacrifice for others - if you die for someone, are you around to accept their gratitude or admiration? As for it being misguided, just because you don't understand something doesn't mean it doesn't make any sense. Hypothetically... if someone was pointing a gun at a person you cared about, what would you do?
Nathan
Realism, perhaps.
Date: 2004-05-12 11:15 am (UTC)As for self-sacrifice - it's your legacy, your memory, that would be improved by your actions.
I would destroy the person holding the gun and protect those I cared for. That's what power is -for-.
Manuel
And if that scenario happened today?
Date: 2004-05-12 11:32 am (UTC)All right. Now I'm having flashbacks to Keanu Reeves movies...
Nathan
Who?
Date: 2004-05-12 11:33 am (UTC)Honor demands no less.
Manuel
vengeance...
Date: 2004-05-12 11:44 am (UTC)Let's take a step back. How would you define ethics, anyway?
Nathan
No, it wouldn't...
Date: 2004-05-12 11:47 am (UTC)How would I define ethics? Hrm. Good question. I don't really care. Ethics are how you behave.
Manuel
uh-huh...
Date: 2004-05-12 11:56 am (UTC)Nathan