Watched S1:E6 of #StarTrek : Strange New Worlds, "Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach," today. About 3/4 of the way through, I asked, "Is this the planet #Omelas?" Strangely, neither of the friends I was watching with had any idea what I was talking about.

I read the short story, "#SpaceTraders", by #DerrickBell thanks to a rec in a thread.

It's well-told and thought provoking; the last line, devastating.

I do wish it had portrayed a United States in an economic situation closer to the 1950's than to the dystopic state of the story so readers today could get caught in their own hypocrisy.

We've always been sacrificed; most of the 85% abide our oppression for their comfort.

"They're evil and selfish"

And you're doing what, exactly?

#Omelas

“I won’t tell you not to despair. But will you believe me if I tell you that you can despair and keep going?”

https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/and-the-ones-who-walk-in/

#ShortStory #scifi #Omelas

You have the strength to walk away from #Omelas

A long and vaguely nerdy essage in the ol' #weblog about #philosophy and #Omelas and #PascalsWager and #Longtermism and related stuff.

Omelas, Pascal, Roko, and Long-termism https://ceoln.wordpress.com/2022/12/04/omelas-pascal-roko-and-long-termism/

Re last boost: Thinking about instances and choices to go or stay as regards what one can live with, it occurs to me that Le Guin's story THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY FROM OMELAS can be applied to the fediverse and wider things as a whole.

https://files.libcom.org/files/ursula-k-le-guin-the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas.pdf

As can Jemsin's THE ONES WHO STAY AND FIGHT. See: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-ones-who-stay-and-fight/

What happens when we think-with-and-through both of these simultaneously?

#UrsulaKLeGuin #NKJemsin #Omelas #UmHelat #SF

Ken - the moon, breaking the world to try to save it.
Lauren - Schaffer breaking her hand ... how she teaches later ... so part of what needs to happen is breaking thought patterns.
Kiini - this is going to be looong. We don't even know if humans can do that ... is oppression just what we do?

#omelas
#readercon

Martin: concerning those who walked away, or the Orogenes who broke the system ... what're the ripples to come, what's the upcoming system?
Panel - yes that's the question of the hour 😂
Ken - can we stay within text, because revolutions are often messy...
Alena - The Dispossesed, they build a new society, but still weaknesses and new bad habits. Dispossesed complicates easy answers to Omelas.
#Omelas #readercon

Alena on rereading #Omelas - in the initial description of the child there's a line "perhaps it was born defective" ... so then there is a concept of brokenness related to disability and mental health ... so happy people are baled and neurotypical in Omelas
Compare induced disability in Fifth Season and the node maintainer's life seen as terrible. (I have Thoughts about ableism in Fifth Season & the trilogy, mostly inherited from other people)
#readercon

Ken - #Omelas a challenge to utilitarianism ... in a collection, the next story is "The Day Before the Revolution" ... the story of Odo of The Dispossesed.
Lauren - contempt for those who see the child and then stay.
(None of them even question?!?)

#readercon

Alena: the bullshit white person defense ... "what if we really had the powers they imagine us to have" thought

Martin - Rage in The Fifth Season... but Omelas (which yes is a writer's thought piece), seems to have weariness, instead.
How could rage be used in Omelas?

Alena - gets back to the idea of privileged guilt in Omelas.
Kiini - trying to explain the psyche of how people could be OK, how normalization happens.

#omelas #readercon

Kiini (cont) - Le Guin never tells us about the child. Are they powerful and dangerous? Jemisin makes it more layered because dangerous.
Martin & Kiini also talking about parallels with today & #BlackLivesMatter (and cultural economy)
But what does the power of the Origenes mean?
Ken - BLM, power of slavery, and also anti-semitism... we need you and your power, but need to keep you apart.

#omelas
#readercon

Martin points out #Omelas is asking a question (proposes A or B as answers), Fifth Season - no we'll break the world instead.
Kiini - the worldbreaker is the oppressed, and acting on behalf of children...
The node Station finally brought up.
Kiini - Orogenes are dangerous! This problematizes things.
#readercon

Kiini- similar starting points. Same seed for two different writers. (And look at the writers' different places of privilege and oppression)
Omelas' ending rang a bit false A the young come and see, get angry, but later they have other feelings. Making excuses ... (writer inserting herself, rang a bit false)
#omelas #readercon

Ken - little conversation ... fundamentally different premise.
#omelas - thought experiment, POV is the privileged.
Fifth Season - not Utopia, POV oppressed.
Alena - inverses. Omelas could be a myth that exists in the world of Fifth Season?
(Cf Damaya's story from Schaffer)
#readercon

#readercon #omelas Martin Cahill (m), Kiini Ibura Salaam, Alena McNamara, Lauren Roy, Kenneth Schneyer
(Panelists already letting us know who's read book 3. I am duly jealous)