{"id":2118,"date":"2014-08-19T08:38:53","date_gmt":"2014-08-19T12:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/?p=2118"},"modified":"2014-12-26T10:07:04","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T15:07:04","slug":"walking-away-from-omelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sermonsfromthemound\/2014\/08\/walking-away-from-omelas\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking away from Omelas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Have you read Ursula Le Guin\u2019s classic short story, The ones who walk away from Omelas<\/em><\/a>?<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t, go and read it now<\/a>. This can wait.<\/p>\n

Omelas is a privileged city, almost a utopia, apart from the one thing that enables its citizens to lead full, happy, and carefree lives \u2013 and that one thing is what makes many people walk away from Omelas.<\/p>\n

Would you walk away from Omelas? Or would you consider that the bargain is justified?<\/p>\n

\"Light<\/a>
The ones who walk away\u2026 (photo by Hartwig HKD<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The thing is, in a way, we all live in Omelas. If you live in the West and\u00a0use products made by underpaid workers, or even slaves<\/a>, in the Far East, shipped across the ocean at a high cost to marine wildlife, then you live in Omelas.<\/p>\n

But our society is not Omelas for everyone. Some people cannot even walk down the street without fearing for their lives. Some people get arrested or even killed for the colour of their skin, the way they walk, the way they dress. If you are Black, or transgender, or gay, you are especially in danger.<\/p>\n

Walking down the street without fear of harassment, arrest, or assault is not a privilege, it is a right<\/a>. Those of us who pass for cisgender and\/or straight and\/or white take this right for granted, and are often unaware that it is a right that is denied to many of our fellow-citizens.<\/p>\n

Education is not a privilege, it is a right (at least until the age of 16).<\/p>\n

If you are right-handed, you take it for granted that the world fits you like a glove. You are unaware of the structural disadvantage faced by left-handers<\/a>, and call us \u201cawkward\u201d and \u201ccack-handed\u201d. \u00a0(I use left-handedness as an example because whilst the structural disadvantages are fairly minor, it seems they are invisible to everyone except left-handers.)<\/p>\n

A privilege<\/strong> is defined as \u201ca special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group\u201d. A right<\/strong> is defined as \u201ca moral or legal entitlement to have or do something\u201d. By definition, rights are, or should be, available to everyone, whereas privileges are, or should be, only granted under exceptional circumstances.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Walking down the street without fear of harassment, arrest, assault, or being murdered by police, is something to which every citizen has a moral and legal entitlement. \u00a0Being afraid every time your son or brother or father leaves the house, that he will get killed just for being Black \u2013 that should be a right, not a privilege.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are many\u00a0privileges that are granted only to white<\/a>, straight<\/a>, (cis)\u00a0male<\/a>, and cisgender<\/a> people, that ought to be rights for everyone.<\/p>\n

There are many privileges granted to people in the West that ought to be rights for everyone in the world \u2013 access to healthcare, not being in danger of famine, epidemics, enslavement, maiming or death by bombing, displacement by war and persecution, and other horrors. The relative peace and security and wealth of the West is built on the deprivation of the rest of the world \u2013 our cheap goods result from the economic disparity between East and West, and the fact that people in Bangladesh, China and other places,\u00a0are prepared to work for very low wages.<\/p>\n

Our Omelas is very big and very pervasive \u2013 and we seem to be trapped in it.<\/p>\n

Perhaps it is not enough to walk away from\u00a0Omelas \u2013 we need to dismantle it from within.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you read Ursula Le Guin’s classic short story, The ones who walk away from Omelas?<\/p>\n

Omelas is a privileged city, almost a utopia, apart from the one thing that enables its citizens to lead full, happy, and carefree lives – and that one thing is what makes many people walk away from Omelas.<\/p>\n

Would you walk away from Omelas? Or would you consider that the bargain is justified?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1320,"featured_media":2121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308,4],"tags":[321,323,322,319,309,6,320],"class_list":["post-2118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-storytime","category-theology","tag-poverty","tag-privilege","tag-rights","tag-science-fiction","tag-story","tag-theology-2","tag-ursula-le-guin"],"yoast_head":"\nWalking away from Omelas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you read Ursula Le Guin's classic short story, The ones who walk away from Omelas? Omelas is a privileged city, almost a utopia, apart from the one thing that enables its citizens to lead full, happy, and carefree lives - and that one thing is what makes many people walk away from Omelas. 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