The citizens of Omelas can visit the room where this child is locked away and bear witness to its tortured, isolated existence. The precise reasons for this setup are not explained, but that is somewhat irrelevant what matters is the philosophical and ethical implications of the thought experiment: does the extreme happiness of an entire city justify the extreme suffering of a single being, which is necessary to maintain that happiness? If the child were granted freedom and relief from its suffering, the prosperity of Omelas would wither away. This particular short story (which you can read here) describes the utopian city of Omelas, whose idyllic nature depends on the continual imprisonment, torture, suffering, and dehumanisation of a single child. Le Guin, originally published in 1973 and then re-republished in The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975), a collection of Le Guin’s short stories. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas is a work of short philosophical fiction by the sci-fi writer Ursula K. An illustrated map of the city of Omelas, created by the artist Andrew DeGraff
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