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Feb. 10th, 2021 02:18 amI'm reading Heaven Official's Blessing. Some stories are against Utilitarianism on a moral level. This one, at least at the point I've reached, is against it on a metaphysical level.
One of the characters phrases the question this way: if you have two men who're dying of thirst, and one cup of water, who do you give it to? The main character's answer is "get another cup." The point that keeps getting hammered home is that just because he wants another cup doesn't mean the universe is obligated to give him one. He keeps getting into situations that could have been resolved cleanly with another cup, except there was no other cup, and his attempt to find or make one achieved nothing. One character straight-up tells him that there is never such a thing as making more happiness in the world, only moving happiness around, and one person's Omelas-like suffering cannot be fixed without inflicting it on another.
But the point is ALSO made that the people who keep saying there is no other cup are the people who have enough cups for themselves. And at least one of them was clearly in the wrong when he avoided suffering by inflicting it on those around him. So I'm really curious how this is going to play out.
One of the characters phrases the question this way: if you have two men who're dying of thirst, and one cup of water, who do you give it to? The main character's answer is "get another cup." The point that keeps getting hammered home is that just because he wants another cup doesn't mean the universe is obligated to give him one. He keeps getting into situations that could have been resolved cleanly with another cup, except there was no other cup, and his attempt to find or make one achieved nothing. One character straight-up tells him that there is never such a thing as making more happiness in the world, only moving happiness around, and one person's Omelas-like suffering cannot be fixed without inflicting it on another.
But the point is ALSO made that the people who keep saying there is no other cup are the people who have enough cups for themselves. And at least one of them was clearly in the wrong when he avoided suffering by inflicting it on those around him. So I'm really curious how this is going to play out.
