What We Do In Omelas
Ursula K. LeGuin wrote a story in 1973 called “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. It’s about a utopian society whose utopia is powered by the perpetual suffering and misery of one child. N. K. Jemisin wrote a story as well in dialogue with this one set in a similar place called Um-Helat. It’s intended as allegory, some say for capitalism.
I found this spectrum illuminating and indicting. There's alt text in the image if you need that.
Of course, it seems deeply unfair to put all of this on one innocent child. But what if it was a nameless horde of them that you could never know personally?
Where do you fall? And where do you disagree with the characterization?
![THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS POLITICAL SPECTRUM [In order from most "far-left" to most "far-right"] LEFT - the ones who believe Omelas should be burned to the ground in the name of the child - the ones who walk away from Omelas - the ones who stay but work to liberate the child - the ones who try to draw attention and support for the liberation of the child LIBERAL -the ones who hope to minimize the plight of the child -the ones who are aware of the child but view their suffering as a necessary, unalterable evil -the ones who believe the child's plight is inextricable from reality itself and believe others are childish and naïve for questioning the necessity of its suffering -the ones who would rather not think of the child and are bummed when it comes up LIB/CON OVERLAP [CENTRIST] -the ones who would rather not think of the child and are angry at those who bring it up -the ones who are really proud their alleged utopia comes at the cost of "only the one" child -the ones who assume the child must deserve it -the ones who wonder aloud if we could upscale the whole thing for extra/better results CON[SERVATIVE] -the ones who doubt the existence of the child -the ones who say that they are in fact the sufferer and the child is their oppressor CON/FASH[FASCIST] OVERLAP -the ones who wish to volunteer to torture the child with the blessing of the law -the ones who think it would be hilarious to kill the child just for the fun of destroying utopia -the ones who claim there is no child but if there were the jews probably put it there in order to appease the blacks and idk the gay agenda steel beams faked the moon landing or something, these people are out of their minds -the ones who wish everyone who wasn't like them could also be tortured along with the child](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!nes1!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff3ad52b4-94b4-4d6e-ab1a-5d28f3d50089_975x754.jpeg "THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS POLITICAL SPECTRUM [In order from most \"far-left\" to most \"far-right\"] LEFT - the ones who believe Omelas should be burned to the ground in the name of the child - the ones who walk away from Omelas - the ones who stay but work to liberate the child - the ones who try to draw attention and support for the liberation of the child LIBERAL -the ones who hope to minimize the plight of the child -the ones who are aware of the child but view their suffering as a necessary, unalterable evil -the ones who believe the child's plight is inextricable from reality itself and believe others are childish and naïve for questioning the necessity of its suffering -the ones who would rather not think of the child and are bummed when it comes up LIB/CON OVERLAP [CENTRIST] -the ones who would rather not think of the child and are angry at those who bring it up -the ones who are really proud their alleged utopia comes at the cost of \"only the one\" child -the ones who assume the child must deserve it -the ones who wonder aloud if we could upscale the whole thing for extra/better results CON[SERVATIVE] -the ones who doubt the existence of the child -the ones who say that they are in fact the sufferer and the child is their oppressor CON/FASH[FASCIST] OVERLAP -the ones who wish to volunteer to torture the child with the blessing of the law -the ones who think it would be hilarious to kill the child just for the fun of destroying utopia -the ones who claim there is no child but if there were the jews probably put it there in order to appease the blacks and idk the gay agenda steel beams faked the moon landing or something, these people are out of their minds -the ones who wish everyone who wasn't like them could also be tortured along with the child")