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The Ones Who Walk Away from Happy Valley

Joe Carter puts me onto a hell of an observation about the Penn State mess, from sci-fi writer John Scalzi: I’m a science fiction writer, and one of the great stories of science fiction is “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” which was written by Ursula K. LeGuin. The story posits a fantastic utopian […]

Joe Carter puts me onto a hell of an observation about the Penn State mess, from sci-fi writer John Scalzi:

I’m a science fiction writer, and one of the great stories of science fiction is “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas,” which was written by Ursula K. LeGuin. The story posits a fantastic utopian city, where everything is beautiful, with one catch: In order for all this comfort and beauty to exist, one child must be kept in filth and misery. Every citizen of Omelas, when they come of age, is told about that one blameless child being put through hell. And they have a choice: Accept that is the price for their perfect lives in Omelas, or walk away from that paradise, into uncertainty and possibly chaos.

At Pennsylvania State University, a grown man found a blameless child being put through hell. Other grown men learned of it. Each of them had to make their choice, and decide, fundamentally, whether the continuation of their utopia — or at very least the illusion of their utopia — was worth the pain and suffering of that one child. Through their actions, and their inactions, we know the choice they made.

If you read nothing else today about this mess, read Scalzi’s entire post. I especially like the lesson he draws from this story for men whose adult sons call them and say, “Dad, I just saw a man sodomizing a child. What should I do?” Scalzi advises, in part: “…at the appropriate time in the future ask your adult son why the f**k he did not try to save that kid.”

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