Let’s imagine for a second that there’s a big huge magical machine that generates anything that any American could want. Anything at all! Hunger is immediately eradicated. Health problems begin to vanish. Scarcity is a thing of the past.
Now imagine that we discover that the machine is operated by stuffing hundreds of thousands of human babies into one side of it. They can never leave. Inside, they will be sucked of all their energy and discarded as husks. Parents who try to keep their babies from being thrown into the machine are killed.
Should we take an incremental, slow approach to shutting down and dismantling this machine? Or should we blow it up?
slavery is an inexcusable, horrible stain on our nation’s fabric
Let’s imagine for a second that there’s a big huge magical machine that generates anything that any American could want. Anything at all! Hunger is immediately eradicated. Health problems begin to vanish. Scarcity is a thing of the past.
Now imagine that we discover that the machine is operated by stuffing hundreds of thousands of human babies into one side of it. They can never leave. Inside, they will be sucked of all their energy and discarded as husks. Parents who try to keep their babies from being thrown into the machine are killed.
Should we take an incremental, slow approach to shutting down and dismantling this machine? Or should we blow it up?
You could’ve just stopped there.
Yes, my hypothetical does borrow heavily from The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.