The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (Ursula K. Le Guin short story)

https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf

Someone I met at a party recommended this to me after I mentioned I liked Ursula K. Le Guin). It's 5 pages long.

It's quite a trip.

Don't read my spoilers unless you read the story!!!

Overview

• Was drawn in by Le Guin's prose and elegant description of the scenery/parade
• Then the narrator (Le Guin? Or is the narrator a separate entity?) starts describing this idyllic civilization/city (Omelas), and it's a true utopia (or so it seems). At this point, it is reminding me of Island by Aldous Huxley with regards to the utopic aspect.
• Then page 3 comes along... My god. It goes from pleasant description of something we seemingly should strive for... to a completely flipped around situation that feels like a hundred-mile deep hole shot down into the ground and filled with lava and poison at the center of this city. In order for this basically perfect city to run and for the citizens to have near perfect happiness, there must be a child kept miserably locked in an underground closet for its whole life (I'm not going to attempt to reproduce the description from Le Guin's writing further than that). And everyone knows about this; knowing about it is supposedly what makes them appreciate their happiness even more. There is a coming-of-age process where they are told about this child for the first time, and most people just accept it as something horrid that's there, but understand that it's necessary for their life/city to continue being as good as it has been.
• Oof. Okay so this is more of a description of our own world. It seems (perhaps depending on the perspective) that we live good, maybe even great, lives. But we also vaguely know that there is a lot of terrible stuff going on that directly underlies our luxuries. Labor issues, environmental issues, exploitation of animals (will tie this into veganism later).
• Then, finally, at the end, (and connecting us to the title of the short story), the part that soothes me and is the silver lining, is the rebellion^[1], the small miniscule rebellions of those who are shown the child and immediately choose to walk away from this place and decide to not participate.

My experience

What an experience Le Guin cultivates with this. I was completely sold on the city and then horrified about the child. Two opposing ideas in my mind nearly at the same time. And the way it's described (before we get to the ending) made me, while reading it, feel like, yes, it makes sense why this child must suffer in order for the city to run like this, this is normal and kind of okay. (I debate whether the reasoning actually makes sense as to why the child's suffering is "necessary" for the success of the city. I'm tempted right now to say that this maybe is part of the point -- that it's actually ridiculous to think of it as necessary and they could still have a successful city even without the terrible thing. The text does address this question, but I'm not sure I'm convinced -- may have to re-read.) I could feel this pull of the described "normalcy" of it -- everyone in the city knows about it and accepts it, so it must be fine. It's the norm. It's the dominant ideology. But I simultaneously felt the grossness of it. So when the ones who walk away were brought up, it was such a relief of tension.^[2] Thank god there are rebels who do not accept this thing that feels so wrong.

Parallel to veganism

So - there's a lot of real world examples someone could apply this to. For me, what comes to mind most strongly is veganism -- naturally, since I'm vegan. Vegans are the ones who walk away from supporting the terrors of the animal agriculture industry. There is first a state of ignorance where we are part of the dominant group that enjoys and appreciates animal products. Then there is the reveal -- the moment where we understand^[3] the terribleness of what underlies that enjoyment, and finally the decision (whether it is immediate or gradual) to walk away from that dominant norm and stop our consumption of animal products.

The thing that makes the Omelas story resonate so strongly with me as a parallel to veganism is the dominant normalcy of the city. The thing we can sense is problematic about the city is actually the widely accepted thing by the people of the city. It's not the type of rebellion where there's an obviously corrupt government and most people are vaguely unhappy and then a small group of rebels rises up and acts against the status quo. Instead, this is a situation where most people are happy, and have decided to be happy, and don't wish for a change (despite knowing that there is something terrible underlying their way of life). And then there is the minority of people who are not okay with participating in the morally-askew lifestyle. They are not okay with this system that, in order to run, relies on oppression/exploitation (even if just on one individual).

The ones who walk away aren't changing anything for the people who choose to stay (except, perhaps, making a statement and showing some social evidence that it can be okay to walk away). So this isn't like The Giver where Jonas chooses to rebel and (despite the people being content with their current way of life) releases the memories back to everyone.

Rather, the walkers are being rebels for their own sake -- they can not stand to live in complacent acceptance of the terrible thing. So they walk away. They choose to align their actions with their morals. This is what veganism is.