Problem being that Omelas doesn’t just require that /somebody/ be suffering; if it did, they’d probably take turns or something. It’s some quality of that one kid.
Which is part of where the metaphor breaks down. In our world, our relative prosperity and status doesn’t require that some specific, dehumanized ‘Other’ be exploited to maintain our own privilege—it merely requires that someone be identified as ‘Other’, that some kind of class distinction be created, and then natural human instincts take over and ensure that marginal power differentials are amplified into a horrific and hypocritical class structure. (Sure, it’s a lot better than it was before, but that doesn’t make it “good” by any stretch of the imagination).
I have no interest in earning money by exploiting the emotional tendencies of those less intelligent than me, so Ialdabaoth-sub-1990 drew a hard line around jobs (or tasks or alliances or friendships) that aid people who do such things.
More generally, Brent-sub-1981 came up with a devastating heuristic: “any time I experience a social situation where humans are cruel to me, I will perform a detailed analysis of the thought processes and behaviors that led to that social situation, and I will exclude myself from performing those processes and behaviors, even if they are advantageous to me.”
It’s the kernel to my “code of honor”, and at this point it’s virtually non-negotiable.
It is not, however, particularly good at “winning”.
Problem being that Omelas doesn’t just require that /somebody/ be suffering; if it did, they’d probably take turns or something. It’s some quality of that one kid.
Which is part of where the metaphor breaks down. In our world, our relative prosperity and status doesn’t require that some specific, dehumanized ‘Other’ be exploited to maintain our own privilege—it merely requires that someone be identified as ‘Other’, that some kind of class distinction be created, and then natural human instincts take over and ensure that marginal power differentials are amplified into a horrific and hypocritical class structure. (Sure, it’s a lot better than it was before, but that doesn’t make it “good” by any stretch of the imagination).
I have no interest in earning money by exploiting the emotional tendencies of those less intelligent than me, so Ialdabaoth-sub-1990 drew a hard line around jobs (or tasks or alliances or friendships) that aid people who do such things.
More generally, Brent-sub-1981 came up with a devastating heuristic: “any time I experience a social situation where humans are cruel to me, I will perform a detailed analysis of the thought processes and behaviors that led to that social situation, and I will exclude myself from performing those processes and behaviors, even if they are advantageous to me.”
It’s the kernel to my “code of honor”, and at this point it’s virtually non-negotiable.
It is not, however, particularly good at “winning”.