Really? If he’d been set up as a villain, I would have thought that—but he wasn’t. The only judgements explicitly passed on him are “without condoning, or condemning, I understand;” and “nothing ever ends, Adrian.” Even before reading OB/LW, I read that as saying Ozymandias had taken on a larger moral responsibility; one that couldn’t be met just by doing his best—if he was going to go “full consequentialist,” he needed to make sure he would actually succeed.
There is something to what Nancy is saying. I would say the authors, while reserving judgement, were highly suspicious of high motives (though I wouldn’t call it self-improvement). Being suspicious of high motives is an LW theme in itself. The self-aggrandizement, callousness etc. were skillfully inserted to prevent the viewer/reader from making a black and white conclusion without thinking. Another reason I love this work :)
Really? If he’d been set up as a villain, I would have thought that—but he wasn’t. The only judgements explicitly passed on him are “without condoning, or condemning, I understand;” and “nothing ever ends, Adrian.” Even before reading OB/LW, I read that as saying Ozymandias had taken on a larger moral responsibility; one that couldn’t be met just by doing his best—if he was going to go “full consequentialist,” he needed to make sure he would actually succeed.
There is something to what Nancy is saying. I would say the authors, while reserving judgement, were highly suspicious of high motives (though I wouldn’t call it self-improvement). Being suspicious of high motives is an LW theme in itself. The self-aggrandizement, callousness etc. were skillfully inserted to prevent the viewer/reader from making a black and white conclusion without thinking. Another reason I love this work :)