Ask Lemmy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas

Basically the plot of this story. It poses the issue of how much we value society over the individual, and if that is good or not. Would you want to live in a world that depended on the the torture of a single person. You then could extrapolate that out to societies in the real world, US and chattel slavery. the west and the use of sweat shop labor for cheap products, the Emirates and their use of migrants as indentured servants. Even tipped wages for servers in the USA, the gig economy, and things like medical residencies could be considered a minor version of Omelas. As humans, we often tolerate the abuse or exploitation of others for our own benefit, or even just out of ignorance and inaction.

I mean, most Christians would say yes because that's the entire premise of the crucifixion.

I'll take a different approach here. Evolution does not care about your feelings.

If a species is unwilling to self-sacrifice for the greater good, and it comes up against an event that cannot be solved with selfishness, it goes extinct. Like in this scenario.

But evolution is a motherfucker, and evolution does not care about your feelings, the only thing that matters to evolution is reproductive success. So some people are going to be altruistic because that's better for the species because it makes it more survivable.

I'm not saying it's right, I'm not saying it's wrong, but the species that's going to survive is the one that's willing to self sacrifice for the greater good of the species. To increase reproductive success. And that's what's going to be left in the universe. Because evolution does not care. You either get with the program or you get out of the gene pool no other option

Do you mean ultimate badass Talenel’Elin , Herald of War?

No it’s not morally preferable. Fuck that world that requires human sacrifice.

An inherently flawed world maintaining its function through cannibalism will inevitably devour itself into nonexistence. Why prolong its suffering?

I'd just walk away from Omelas.

I think it has happened numerous times already under the same pretense.

I am not sure if we are saved or not.

Is that person Rupert Murdoch? Then yes

I would not do it, if somebody else does it - so be it.

Unfair to ask the question in the incomplete form.. The tortured person is you. Now answer

Someone needs to watch "Knock at the Cabin" by Shyamalan.

"healthy unemployment rate"

Nope. That's a world that's not worth saving.

Come torture me

So, who do we torture?