The other day in class Prof. Sexson posed this question "Could you walk away from Omelas?" I had never heard of this piece of literature. My first thought was, What would the child choose? He should have the choice to bare the suffering or not to bare the suffering. Each person should have a choice whether they are to stay, or they are to go or to be tortured for the sake of the happiness of all others.
What ever the child chooses I would leave Omelas. I would have some peace of mind in knowing that the child had a choice in his role of Omelas, but I would still be disturbed knowing that people felt that one person's suffering exchanged for all the suffering in the world was just. If I think back over my "sufferings" I would not ask someone to endure a lifetime of anyone of them so I may never suffer again. My sufferings could never be so great or so minimal that I allow someone else to endure them. I'd rather ask to die.
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