Horton Hears The Omelas Child But Seriously Considers The Utilitarian Ethics As A Worthwhile Moral Thought Experiment Because He Lacks The Context To Consider The Obvious Social Democracy Metaphor Behind The Concept Of The Omelas Child Because He Grew Up In Liberalism Without Seriously Considering Or Critiquing The System He Is Immersed In
It bothers me that people overlook that the Omelas story is primarily about the reader of the story. The inability of the reader to be able to comfortably dream about a proper utopia without skepticism. Those who leave are a metaphor for readers who dare to dream unbothered by the cynicism of the world.
Maybe I need to reread but I always saw those who left as being pretty
, walking away from the problem and pretending it ends at the border. As if being in the next town, or even across the globe, exempt you from the benefits.the ones who walk away are abdicating their responsibility to VOTE for the lesser evil
The subject of the story is YOU, the reader. The story directly addresses you. It talks about how you cannot accept a pure utopia. It criticizes you. It then constructs an awful truth that must lie at the heart of this society in order to make it function so that you may accept it. The people that walk away are better than you. They are others like you except they are unable to accept this. They will not settle for this. They will find a better utopia. They do not need a dark secret in their dream society.
LeGuin's politics are very communistic. She's not writing about liberals and is much more clever and subtle than you give her credit for.
I think the idea is that the benefits do end at the border, but it's all open to interpretation. They would prefer to reject the benefits of the utopia rather than live with the understanding of what it costs. One could argue that they could/should take some sort of action, but I don't find it so obvious.
Eh, I just reread it and still pretty much hold that view. She talks about people from up and down the coast coming to the festival. Plus, it's LeGuin, and she's no stranger to politics. The child could easily be the marginalized, the global South, etc, etc. Unless they're going into the mountains to start a protracted people's war, I'm still seeing them as
