r/humanism

The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas is a short fiction story by Ursula K. Le Guin published in 1973. The premise of the story is Omelas is a utopian society, yet somehow the happiness of this utopia is dependent upon the suffering of a single child.

The people of Omelas know about this, and they don’t like the fact, those who go to witness the child are disturbed and want to help the child but don’t because if they did do their utopia would collapse. So despite being bothered by it, most people eventually just accept that this is how it is. With the exception of a small few, who after seeing the child leave Omelas, they walk away because they can’t live in this utopia if that is the cost.

While the story doesn’t directly criticize religion, you can definitely use the logic of the story to criticize Christianity. Christians believe that if you accept their God, embrace their messiah as your lord and savior, you will go to Heaven and be rewarded with immortality and paradise. Those who don’t are condemned to an eternity of suffering. While some Christians believe in universal salvation or in the destruction of the unsaved, mainstream Christianity believes in eternal conscience torment.

So Christians, in exchange for their personal happiness, accept the suffering of hundreds of millions to billions of people. I say no. I don’t want to die, but it would be better for us to all cease to cease than for all of us to live forever in exchange for even a single person’s eternal suffering.

How many more innocents must die? How many more must struggle through life, homeless, hungry, afraid? How many more people and other forms of life must we abuse before we wake up and understand none of this is right? We live in a self-centered world, immunized from the innumerable horrors and challenges of others, worried only about our own success and survival, with little concern for others.

We must each make a choice in our life. To continue to ignore the inequities and needless struggles resulting from living in such a world, or to view the world through a different lens, one where we treat everyone, regardless of our differences, with compassion and unconditional love.

In a more compassionate world, we would help everyone in need, understanding every person, regardless of our differences, is equally important and that we are alive to sincerely care and help each other, not to continue to ignore those who are needlessly struggling.

Something that you can’t describe in words, but I‘m gonna make you feel it, in order to understand it.

Close your eyes and think of humanity, everyone you know, everyone you never met, every worker out there, as someone you have a connection with. And make yourself imagine a world where everyone is one, if you take off the complex layers of biology and environment.

Close your eyes and convince yourself hardly that while you are relaxing, people out there are advancing humanity, bringing your species step by step forward, without knowing you, yet they do it for you, for your future, and especially for your next generation.

Close your eyes and thank the previous 90 billion humans who made the world as comfortable and beautiful as it is now, just for you.

For you to enjoy the warm food they couldn’t have, for you to enjoy a warm shower in the cold, for you to lay on your bed while it rains and thunders outside.
Enjoy it, at least, do it for them.

Your Humanity did not kneel to mother nature. Rather than adapting biologically through suffering and sacrifice just like every other species did, it overcame it. It bent nature to its will rather than getting bent by it. So you, a being who has the highest consciousness and awareness of all the other creatures out there, can enjoy it.

So tell me, what could possibly be a greater feeling than having billions of your people working for the greater good, some with the goal to become multiplanetary, some to make life even more enjoyable for the next generations, some getting everyone out of poverty which has been successful WHILE everyone is holding each other's hands in some way.

So if I was forced to answer that question in the title, I would go with,

Having the feeling of being bound and united with humanity so, so much, to love everyone for their differences. To love everyone for their different beliefs and especially for their different way of thinking.

The more you learn about us, the more you will realize how close we are to being one and how much more we have in common than what tears us apart.

I love each and every one of you❤

This is something that I have been thinking for SO long, and just recently could put into words.

Lets put some terms into the table first. The essentialist believe that the etiquettes we have in society are necessary for our identities and the restitution of social inequalities. Meanwhile the universalists, or in this case I will say humanist, believe that those same etiquettes can be overcome to create a fully equal society on which everyone is judged as an individual rather than the member of tribes they did not choose to be part of.

Now, iconsider myself a leftist, yes. And I value the job of leftist across the world. However, I do think that most of them don't have any core reason of why they believe what they believe. And that is not bad by itself, any help is welcomed. That is what I think. But I also believe that there will be a time on which universalists and humanist will be at arms (metaphorically) against the essentialist. Both sides within the left. And I realized that, the much I like leftist, I wouldn't want to live in a world led by essentialist of any kind. I don't want to live in it already, that is why I am a humanist. So knowing most leftist are also essentialist leaves me with a deep sense of hopelessness. Knowing that even in the best case scenario we will still need to continue the fight.

But recently, I realized we still have a good hand. The thing is that most humanist have never heard about the philosophy, they just live it. Naturist are a good example. They have been existing for longest than we imagine, and yet they have not been considered polytical despite the hyper polytical fact that they blurred or destroyed the lines that separate men and women as some form of different tribe. Which is impressive. The same happens with most non racist people in places like South America, once you analyze it deeply. And the hippies too were humanist. So perhaps we are not completely lost after all.

But what do you think?

As you are growing up, you will notice life can appear to be very challenging. The world is not always a very nice place to live in. You will see many things that make you wonder why bad things happen to so many. You will see people who do not have enough food to eat or a place to live, and others, who do not like someone because they are different.

Regardless of what color your skin is, the country you live in, your beliefs, or any other differences there are between us, it is important you do not believe anyone is better or more important than anyone else. Every life is equally important, regardless of any differences there are between us.

Living a good life has nothing to do with the job you have, the amount of money you make, if you are famous, or anything else you may hear about when you are growing up. Rather, the only important thing is that you are a good person. Be someone who truly cares about others feelings, helping them whenever you can, treating everyone with kindness and love, even if they do not treat you that way.

You will find there are many in the world who are unhappy, afraid, and worry only about themselves. Please, do not be like them. You can change the world if you simply listen to the quiet voice in your heart and share the loving messages you hear with others. Embrace life with awe. Be kind to everyone. Share the goodness in your heart with those who are different or struggling. And, most importantly, treat others like you wish to be treated.

If you do this, you will be happy. Choose not to live in a world where everyone is afraid, worrying only about themselves. Instead, be compassionate loving, respectful, humble, and optimistic about life. Be courageous. Care about others feelings. Be friendly and help them if they are different or in need. If you do this, you may find your life will be happy and meaningful.

The path you choose through life will decide the future of the world. The older generations have not done a very good job taking care of our planet or each other. It is up to you, therefore, our children, to make the changes that must be made, by always choosing the loving path in life.

Many close their eyes, pretending not to see the struggles of others, ignoring their pain, tears, hunger, senseless deaths.

We must all open our eyes, pretend no more, selflessly help all who are struggling.

Only then may their challenges be mitigated and our world finally begin to evolve.