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The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas
Sep. 25th, 2006 10:25 amI was reading this grisly news report when it occurred to me that The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas was not the far-fetched thought experiment that I had thought it was.
See, I've been reading about Asian societies lately, most of which run the gamut from socially repressive on one end to politically totalitarian on the other. But what they've got going for them, on the whole, is order. Bizarre stories like the above are far less common (though not, I hasten to admit, unknown) in states where society frowns on the individual for stepping even slightly out of line.
So, in a sense, by choosing to have a relatively free and open (if not as much as it used to be!) society, we have chosen an Omelas where we get to choose our occupation, choose our living arrangements, and pursue our dreams, but at the cost of someone somewhere falling afoul of a serial killer or deranged fetus-snatcher.
On the other hand, societies which choose to regulate behavior tightly buy order at the cost of a different sort of Omelas. I don't think there's any solution where nobody gets hurt.
See, I've been reading about Asian societies lately, most of which run the gamut from socially repressive on one end to politically totalitarian on the other. But what they've got going for them, on the whole, is order. Bizarre stories like the above are far less common (though not, I hasten to admit, unknown) in states where society frowns on the individual for stepping even slightly out of line.
So, in a sense, by choosing to have a relatively free and open (if not as much as it used to be!) society, we have chosen an Omelas where we get to choose our occupation, choose our living arrangements, and pursue our dreams, but at the cost of someone somewhere falling afoul of a serial killer or deranged fetus-snatcher.
On the other hand, societies which choose to regulate behavior tightly buy order at the cost of a different sort of Omelas. I don't think there's any solution where nobody gets hurt.
