The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

In the story The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas the author paints a picture of a perfect society in which everyone lives happily, there are good harvests, life seems simple and bountiful. Omelas sounds like a place that is perfect to everyone within it. But in order for the wellbeing of omelas to be maintained there is a child in a basement, the happiness and wellbeing of the community relies on the detriment to this child. Everyone in Omelas knows about the child in the basement, once children can understand they are told about the child in the basement. most people in Omelas see this as the way of life, they come to terms with the fact that the community relies on the detriment of this child and live happily and freely. But some people in Omelas come to see the child and don’t see this as right they leave Omelas not knowing what lay beyond the borders of the city.

This is a really well written piece. It captures a lot of ideas, thoughts and metaphors that can be used to draw relation to real life. I would definitely recommend this short story to a friend to trigger a discussion although I would understand that many discussions can be triggered by reading this piece. many people who read this  will be left with questions, why a child? What happens if the child dies? How long has this ritual been taking place? These would all be really interesting questions to consider and manipulate to see where you fall between walking away from omelas and staying in omelas. 

There are a lot of connections to draw between this story and real life. One connection being the global community, not everyone is born equal in this world some people benefit off the hardships of others, how might this affect you personally? Who do I benefit off of ? or Who suffers because of my happiness or luxuries? There could also be a religious connection between the suffering of Christ for the sins of others.

For one that might have chosen to stay in omelas they would have probably held a more utilitarian view in that although one may be suffering many are happy and if one is given the chance to be happy than everyone suffers. How could the child be happy if everyone around him is suffering consequences because of his happiness? Or what benefit is there to me leaving Omelas? One might ask to themselves. On the other side there were those who chose to leave Omelas they may have chose that they didn’t want to be one of the people who benefited off the suffering of the child in the basement. They probably would have considered that they could have also been that child and put themselves into that child’s shoes figuratively. I think that personally I would have stayed in omelas. I think that leaving omelas doesn’t solve the problem, the child still suffers at the hands of those in Omelas. I also think that if the child were to be happy that inevitably its surroundings would be so sad that there would be no happiness in Omelas for any citizen including the child.

In the real world with computing, situations can arise that cause benefit or luxury for the greater society but unbearable suffering to others. One example I can think of is with electronic waste. Often when electronic waste is made it is shipped to third world countries where child labor is legal and children are made to break down old electronics for scrap metal. Generally this causes pollution mistreatment and the mistreatment of children in these countries because the country that produced the waste does not want to deal with it. In this situation leaving omelas would be similar to choosing to not produce electronic waste or choose to sustainably recycle your electronics. Staying in omelas on the other hand is to turn a blind eye and continue to produce electronic waste. In this context I think my opinion on staying in omelas holds based off similar reasoning. I think that leaving omelas in this case has no great effect on the outcome of the practices will still occur just you will not be the beneficiary.