The Standard Reading If you've heard of Le Guin's ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’, you probably know the basic idea. It's a go-to story for discussions of utilitarianism and its downsides. A paper calls it “the infamous objection brought up by Ursula Le Guin”. It shows up in university ‘Criticism of Utilitarianism' syllabi, and is used for classroom material alongside the Trolley Problem. The story is often also more broadly read as a parable about global inequality, the comfortable rich countries built on the suffering of the poor, and our decision to not walk away from our own complicity.

If you haven't read ‘Omelas’, I suggest you stop here and read it now[1]. It's a short 5-page read, and I find it beautifully written and worth reading.

The rest of this post will contain spoilers.

The popular reading goes something like: Omelas is a perfect city whose [...]

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Outline:

(00:10) The Standard Reading

(01:14) The Correct (?) Reading

(02:29) The First Question

(03:51) The Second Question

(04:34) The Misreading Is Perfect

(06:27) Le Guin Disagrees

The original text contained 2 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 2nd, 2025

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/n83HssLfFicx3JnKT/omelas-is-perfectly-misread

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.