Really, Stephen could just make the tea happen, have it all appear ready and warm in Jonas’ hands, but he wants to do it the old fashioned way. Or old fashioned for him, anyway. A time before magic. Having something physical to do is a bit of a novelty, even if his hands shake and rattle the cups.
"It's sort of like you just said—the right thing isn’t always the heroic thing. Sometimes the right thing isn't what we'd like, isn't what we approve of or personally agree with, but it's the right thing. Or at the very least, not something that should be the basis for passing judgement on."
Stephen does summon the milk to his hand for Jonas’ tea, but he pours it himself.
"Think of it like when people ask doctors about how we can treat violent criminals. How we can stand to try and save rapists and murderers. Morally speaking, these people have done great harm to others, the logic then goes that don't deserve saving. Ethically speaking, life is life and to refuse to treat someone on the basis of judging their actions creates slippery slopes."
Picking up Jonas' cup, Stephen turns to offer it to him.
"Morals enshrine certain kinds of thinking: who deserves to live, who deserves to die, whose voices are elevated, whose voices are silenced, who we are allowed to love, who weren't not. It makes some lives seem more tragic to lose than others: people treat child death as inherently an ibjectively more painful loss than adults, but life is life and all loss is loss. Some of the logic is arbitrary. Morals are what we learn a version of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable from. Ethics is more complicated, more uncomfortable. Doing something that is ethical isn't necessarily moral. Sometimes they're actively at odds with each other."
no subject
"It's sort of like you just said—the right thing isn’t always the heroic thing. Sometimes the right thing isn't what we'd like, isn't what we approve of or personally agree with, but it's the right thing. Or at the very least, not something that should be the basis for passing judgement on."
Stephen does summon the milk to his hand for Jonas’ tea, but he pours it himself.
"Think of it like when people ask doctors about how we can treat violent criminals. How we can stand to try and save rapists and murderers. Morally speaking, these people have done great harm to others, the logic then goes that don't deserve saving. Ethically speaking, life is life and to refuse to treat someone on the basis of judging their actions creates slippery slopes."
Picking up Jonas' cup, Stephen turns to offer it to him.
"Morals enshrine certain kinds of thinking: who deserves to live, who deserves to die, whose voices are elevated, whose voices are silenced, who we are allowed to love, who weren't not. It makes some lives seem more tragic to lose than others: people treat child death as inherently an ibjectively more painful loss than adults, but life is life and all loss is loss. Some of the logic is arbitrary. Morals are what we learn a version of right and wrong, acceptable and unacceptable from. Ethics is more complicated, more uncomfortable. Doing something that is ethical isn't necessarily moral. Sometimes they're actively at odds with each other."