The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

PrairieGhost

http://harelbarzilai.org/words/omelas.txt

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, by Ursula K Le Guin

(Please take a moment to read this. It is very short.)

genkaku

I am a fan of Ursula LeGuin ... mostly of the books that strain less hard. But even in her straining, I think she is better than most.

Sile

WOW. Thanks, @PrairieGhost.

Vastmind

WOW again.

That was fierce!
On so many levels!

PrairieGhost

I like to joke, but I'm going to be deadly serious for a moment.

You may know what this allegory represents: it is not inevitable; it is not human nature; it is not the way of the world; we will not sit oblivious in bliss as the storm rages about us.

We will return to Omelas. We will change this.

The following poem by Emma Lazurus was written to consecrate Liberty. I believe it could stand for many things; for instance, the passing of the flame from the old religions of pomp and dogma and personality and patriarchy and ritual, to the heart of the lotus now growing.

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp! cries she
With silent lips. Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!




Take it.

FairyFeller

My dyslexia read that as The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelettes.

PrairieGhost

Ok, ok, way too serious

It's a great story though.

PrairieGhost

Walking away from Omelas represents walking away from relativity, from rich and poor, happy and sad. It represents the path to non-duality. But we also have to return to the relative world, or rather, realise we never left it. And there is never any time to lose.