Ethical Dilemmas, Thursday, (Per 1)

[deathsmajesty]

Considering everybody knew where to meet and how to get there, Liliana didn't offer the several minute's grace she had last week, starting her lecture at nine am exactly. People were welcome to continue to help themselves to breakfast, of course - there were mini-omelettes in bacon cups, vegetarian mini-omelettes, mini quiche bites, hashbrown bites, and a variety of breakfast crostinis available for the hungry, courtesy of Ignis, as Liliana certainly didn't cook - but she was going to continue lecturing while they did.

"So, today, we have our first ethical dilemma," Liliana said. "It's taken from the short story Those Who Walk Away From Omelas. This story opens upon Omelas, a wonderful society where there is no hunger, no violence, no kings, no gods, no masters. They are not a simple people, they have advanced technologies, they've cured common diseases, they have art and literature and science, and are sophisticated as any of us. But, more than anything else, they are happy. Comfortable. All children are loved and wanted, all consenting relationships are celebrated, every person is cherished, living not a life of pointless luxury, but joyful abundance. Scarcity does not exist here.

"However..." Because there was always a however, wasn't there? Which was, in fact, one of the themes of the short story, but that was an analysis for a different class. "...In a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas, or perhaps in the cellar of one of its spacious private homes, there is a room. It has one locked door, and no window. A little light seeps in dustily between cracks in the boards, secondhand from a cobwebbed window somewhere across the cellar. In one corner of the little room a couple of mops, with stiff, clotted, foul-smelling heads, stand near a rusty bucket. The floor is dirt, a little damp to the touch, as cellar dirt usually is.

"The room is about three paces long and two wide: a mere broom closet or disused tool room. In the room, a child is sitting. It could be a boy or a girl. It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect...It sits hunched in the corner farthest from the bucket and the two mops. It is afraid of the mops. It finds them horrible. It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still standing there; and the door is locked; and nobody will come. The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes, except that sometimes--the child has no understanding of time or interval--sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a person, or several people, are there. One of them may come in and kick the child to make it stand up. The others never come close, but peer in at it with frightened, disgusted eyes. The food bowl and the water jug are hastily filled, the door is locked; the eyes disappear. The people at the door never say anything, but the child, who has not always lived in the tool room, and can remember sunlight and its mother's voice, sometimes
speaks. "I will be good, " it says. "Please let me out. I will be good!" They never answer. The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, "eh-haa, eh-haa," and it speaks less and less often. It is so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day. It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually.

"They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there. They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery." There was more, but Liliana skipped over several paragraphs, finishing up with the crux of the matter. "If the child were brought up into the sunlight out of that vile place, if it were cleaned and fed and comforted, that would be a good thing, indeed; but if it were done, in that day and hour all the prosperity and beauty and delight of Omelas would wither and be destroyed. Those are the terms. To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed."

With that, she set her copy of the short story aside. "Most citizens return to their homes after learning about the child, and their happiness, their abundance, has a new weight to it. Everything they have, everything they build, every song sung or book written or picture drawn owes its existence to the suffering of that child. That knowledge sits with them for all of their life, making them mindful of their blessings, making them a better people, because they have seen the cost of all of it and they know they are not paying it.

"But then, there are others. Those who cannot reconcile their lives and that child's suffering. And so, they leave. Most don't even pack anything, walking out of Omelas, over its well-paved roads, beyond its well-tilled fields, with nothing more than the clothing on their backs. Where do they go? Who knows. 'Each alone, they go west or north, towards the mountains. They go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.' Nobody knows what lies in those mountains - they go in ignorance, they go alone, and whatever fate they meet is a question that will never be answered."

The end of her lecture, she sat back and looked at the class. "So, today's ethical dilemma is a simple question: go or stay? Do you stay and participate in mindful happiness, or are you one of the ones who walks away? Answer that and prepare to defend your choice--but. Remember my rules. You are answering for this exact scenario only. You cannot stay and work to free the child, or tear the city down brick by brick. if you leave, you do not get to return with an army, or declare you're going to one of the surrounding towns. "Go forth, alone and into darkness, or stay and participate in society. Those are your only two options."

[Hey, head's up! Under the cut is part of the text of TWWAFO, specifically extreme neglect and abuse of a child. Be safe!]

Comments

Sign In #2

[deathsmajesty]

With a weetiny icon

Re: Sign In #2

[gospel_of_oblivion]

Illyana Rasputin

Re: Sign In #2

[suitably_heroic]

Jack Rand

Listen to the Lecture

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana will pass out copies of the short story (an audio version is available as well) so people can follow along with their own texts, or refer to it as they'd like.

Feel free to comment, react, talk to one another, eat your breakfast, whatever!

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[stykera]

Stark had gone very quiet during the reading and he'd seemingly forgotten about the food he'd taken.

Your Ethical Dilemma

[deathsmajesty]

Go or stay?

Be prepared to defend your answer.

(Folks are encouraged to ping in to other people's threads. Pretty much everyone in this class is opinionated - make these threads messy!)

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[gospel_of_oblivion]

"Go." It was half a snarl, and Illyana was doing her best to keep her fingers as fingers and not claws, which was taking more focus than it should. "It may solve nothing, but at least I live or die on my merits, and not because I'm a slaver."

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana knew some of Illyana's history and while she might be callous in her personal dealings with people, in her dealings as a professor, well...She wasn't entirely without ethics.

"First," she said quietly, "would you like a drink? Tea or something stronger?"

...Her own particular brand of ethics.

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[suitably_heroic]

Jack had eaten his breakfast - quietly - as Liliana talked.

"I'd go," he said.

For all the opinions he generally had, he didn't seem immediately inclined to expand on that.

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[deathsmajesty]

Well, it wasn't like he didn't know what was coming.

"Why?"

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[what_big_teeth]

As she listened to the story, Eleanor could only think of one thing, of her grandmere telling her that Rhys was actually better this way, that she was really doing him a favor...and it made her shudder, slightly, and cast an disparaging look toward the food on offer, wondering how anyone could stomach eating with a topic like this.

"I don't think I'd be able to stay, knowing what was happening," she said, then hesitated, and added a "But..."

Her eyes flicked toward Luma for a moment, but then returned steadily to their teacher.

"I can't help but wonder...that answer comes from me, Eleanor, with all my lived experiences and perspectives, but if I was born into a society like this, would I even think anything was wrong with it? I would have probably been raised to believe that this was just how things go, and with nothing to challenge that...how would I come to conclude otherwise? I suppose those who leave might be a moment of planting that seed of doubt, so I'd like to think that seed would germinate and grow and give me the perspective to want to leave, but realistically?"

Her effort at a casual shrug failed, and she mostly just dropped her eyes apologetically.

"I don't know if I would, in that context."

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[deathsmajesty]

Liliana gave Eleanor a broad smile. "Very good Eleanor," she said. "This conversation is precisely why I brought up the definition of ethics last class. We are all, to one extent or another, a product of our various upbringings and experiences. We don't know what kind of ethics that have been brought up with; the idea that one must be prepared to give all for the continuation of the good and for the betterment of one's society and one's fellows."

She tilted her head. "Your answer makes you uncomfortable, though?"

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[even_bigger_teeth]

As she listened, both to Miss Vess explaining the premise of the hypothetical and to some of her classmates' responses, Luma was keeping a steady, almost curious gaze on Eleanor. And a part of her, if she was entirely honest, wanted to say that she would stay. Was it just to be contrarian? Did she just cherish her comfort that completely? She wasn't quite sure, but she knew, if she dug underneath that initial thought, she wouldn't feel comfortable with any of it, especially once she considered Eleanor. Considered Rhys.

"My grandparents," she started, "always taught me that you always did whatever you could for the benefit of the tribe....but they also taught me that the tribe is only as strong as the weakest among them. But my grandparents," and if she managed to catch Eleanor's eye then, she'd nod, give her a faint smile, "were wrong about a lot of things, too. I'd leave. A perfect society sounds dreadfully boring, anyway."

No violence? Couldn't be her.

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[what_big_teeth]

Eleanor did catch Luma's glance her way, and the little smile, and, even if she wasn't a little unsure of what exactly it meant, it made her feel a little better, regardless, and she gave a small, grateful smile back.

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[deathsmajesty]

"Expound upon that," Liliana said, clearly intrigued. She had no fangs but her own smile was sharp in its own way; vulpine instead of lupine, perhaps. "So you would leave, but for your own reasons and nothing to do with the child? Or is that a cavalier way of saying so?"

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[sharp_man]

"I would stay," Hannibal answered. He shrugged. "My leaving would not help the child. If anything, the more people enjoying life, the more their suffering is of use."

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[deathsmajesty]

"Thank you, Hannibal, for being unafraid to say so," Liliana said with a smile. She hadn't been sure if anyone would be willing to cop to staying. "Is your staying predicated only because doing so would not help the child...?"

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[intheeyeofthebeholding]

"I...um."

Jon grimaced. "I know you've said we can't do anything else, but...but realistically..."

Look, realistically, Jon would be the child.

"I'd, um. I'd stay. With the child, I mean. I-if that were permitted."

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[unusual_sith]

Lana frowned in thought. And changed her mind about ten times before answering.

"I'm honestly not sure." She huffed. "It seems as though the story is set up to make leaving the right choice, and people whose opinion I trust," she nodded to Yana and Jack, "would leave. I hate the idea of resting all of society on someone's misery. But so many people in any society are miserable, there's a part of me that says wouldn't it be better if it were only one person? So I'm left indecisive."

Please convince her, someone!

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[thatwaslucky]

"I don't think I could live with myself either way," Rey admitted. "I'd never not think about it."

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[mustbeawitch]

Lydia disliked both of these options and did not understand why they were the only ones available, but after thinking things through, she said, "On the one hand, one child's suffering for an entire city's happiness is a cheap price, in terms of sacrifice. Hundreds of children are suffering in London right now. But I think it is the accepting of the situation by everyone around me I would not be able to accept. The idea that everyone around me has...shrugged it off, or whatnot. So I think that I would leave, given no other choices." Probably not immediately, based on past experiences, but she would work her way up to it.

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[stykera]

He wanted to argue and he wanted to ask questions. He didn't.

"I couldn't live with myself if I stayed," Stark said finally, voice soft. "I'd go. It solves nothing, going. But staying is worse."

Re: Your Ethical Dilemma

[moreofaponchoguy]

"Is it possible it's a lie?" Cal asked. "I don't know if I could just leave without trying to help the child as well. What if it's all a lie, or some kind of test?"

Talk to Liliana

[deathsmajesty]

Surely you would love more of a chance to talk to her!

OOC

[deathsmajesty]