Should The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Ever since ancient Greece, philosophers have been debating for a method in which to create a true democracy. Ideally, such a government would utilize non-tyrannical majority rule, popular sovereignty and reason. Unfortunately, establishing this utopia is an impossible feat. Although society has imposed thoughtfulness upon people, humans are genetically hardwired to be selfish and corrupt. For this reason, human society will never achieve true democracy. The Greco-Roman empire believed the whole of a population is generally correct, and democratic institutions should trust the majority to make decisions appropriate for society. However, a large number of people can still be wrong. The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas illustrates tyranny of the

Leaders in Athens believed that all citizens had a sense of self-worth because of their ability to reason. In order to give these individuals say in the law, leaders made reforms to the government that expanded the participation of citizens in government. Over time, Athenian government evolved into a direct democracy in which all citizens could directly participate. However, their government was very weak. Eventually, a small group of people took over the unstable government, ending democracy. Athens’s government was modeled after the idea of popular sovereignty. However, it collapsed because it gave power to too many self-centered and cruel people, who eventually took away the voices of the rest of the people. On the topic of joint cruelty, Golding wrote an article on the very subject called “Why Boys Become Vicious” some forty years after publishing his novel Lord of the Flies. The author gives an example of homeless, orphaned children from post-World War I Russia who roam the country, killing and attacking. He writes, “gangs begin to find cohesion merely in the joint fulfillment of their darkest instincts…We are born with evil in us and cruelty is a part of this” (15-19). In a world without social boundaries, groups gain solidarity “in the joint fulfillment of their darkest instincts.” Golding implies that social bonds occur when

History credits the Greco-Romans for first putting the law above all people, even kings. They established ideas of individuality; that all people have worth. Greco-Romans believed that all citizens were equal, so the law should reflect the equality of all people. However, Roman officials, called patricians, often interpreted the law to suit themselves and took advantage of lower class citizens, plebeians. The plebeians were farmers and merchants who had little power. Patricians believed that because they had inherited their position in society, making laws was their birthright. The patrician’s beliefs are an example of natural human corruption and of selfishness. People born into positions of wealth and influence believe they deserve what they have, especially their power. The patricians were willing to act dishonestly for their own benefit without first considering the needs of others. All people put in their position, no matter their social conditioning, are destined to become corrupt because cruelty is a natural part of human nature. Likewise, ideas of innate human cruelty take center stage in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. The title character in the book is a pig’s head, impaled on a sharpened stick and covered in flies. It appears to Simon, one of the British schoolboys stranded on an island. The Lord of the Flies tells Simon, “You’ll only meet me down there—so don’t try to escape...We are going to have