E4. "This I Do For You" - Can you be a hero, if you didn’t know you volunteered?
STORY SUMMARY: In a distant land, there is a child to an alien race who is set aside as special. He is fed whatever he wants, and gets all that his heart desires, but he can never leave his bedroom. People come to visit him, and thank him. He gets fatter as he gets older, eventually unable to leave his room, or even move around. When a famine comes to the community it is revealed to him why he has been allowed to get so fat, he (and a few others) are meant to be food for the rest of the community during times of famine.
DISCUSSION: Interesting story about culture and utilitarianism and what it means to be a hero. Is the kid a hero for helping the community when he had no idea that he was going to be sacrificed to save them? Is his mother evil for not telling him and giving him a choice? What about all the friends and relatives who never said a word? Do we have the right to judge another culture and the ways they deal with famine? Are the ethics of this made worse if the community isn’t actively researching ways to make this type of killing no longer necessary?
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E3. "The Shadow Of The Thing" - Would you take a pill that showed you the truth about the world?
STORY SUMMARY: The narrator goes to his friend’s house. She has invited him there because she wants to take a new street drug. But this drug is special, if you take it once, the effect lasts forever. It’s supposed effect is it allows you to see the true nature of the world. Her husband has already taken it, and he is very different, referring to the objects around him as only the “the form of the thing.” The friend takes the pill and, while she is waiting for it to take hold, the narrator realizes there are two pills left on the table.
DISCUSSION: The story is clearly a rift on the allegory of the cave. The drug, in some ways, mirrors the loss of self that people talk about when taking Psilocybin. There are a few issues. First, is the drug even what it says it is? Next, if it is, how will it effect you and your ability to work and take care of yourself. And finally, assuming all that’s true, do you even want to know the truth about the world and that you’ve been living a lie your whole life? Is the nature of life truth, or happiness? Some of the people can’t take the truth and ending up killing themselves.
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E2. "My Fellow (Immortal) Americans" - Don't you have a right to immortality?
STORY SUMMARY: Sometime in the future, the President gives a speech to a group of wealthy donors. In this future, time is the only currency and, if you have enough of it, you can live forever. The focus of the President’s speech is about his opposition to the new labor laws that want to pay a higher minimum “time wage.” The President argues, it will encourage laziness, and is anti-capitalistic. That the hard working rich, deserve to live forever, and pass their accumulated years on to their children to do the same.
DISCUSSION: It’s an interesting concept, but not developed enough. For example, when someone does die, how do you decide who gets to have a the next kid in the world. It is a good story in that is brings up questions of economic inequality in a way that makes it more offensive. Also brings up an interesting question of if people did have to work only a little, to get paid a lot of time, would people become lazy? Are people inherently lazy?
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E1. "Patchouli Lost" - How far would you go to help a friend, who is unwilling to help themselves?
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STORY SUMMARY: The male narrator calls a friend who is locked in her bathroom while her abusive ex-boyfriend pounds on the door outside. The narrator comes over and looks after his friend for a few days. However, he insists that she block the ex-boyfriends phone number or he will stop helping her. She refuses, and the stop talking.
DISCUSSION: Is the narrator a good person? He helps her, but he also has other motivations. There is a physical attraction. By putting conditions on his help, is he just asking his friend to exchange one controlling relationship for another? Is the narrator any better than the abusive ex-boyfriend?
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