Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Discussions

STORY SUMMARY: A group of people are sent by the Kingdom through shifting deserts to find a rumored people that have rainbow skin. As they get closer they see people in the desert turned to stone, and others nearly stone simply repeating the same task over and over again. One of them is injured and they get to the rainbow people in need of medical attention. They learn that anyone who lives in the community will slowly turn to stone unless the community deems them of value and allows them to take place in a ritual. One member of the group does the ritual and joins the community, one refuses and turns to stone, and one goes back home to tell the tale.

DISCUSSION: Fascinating story about how a society places value on certain kinds of work. Is certain work more valuable then other work? Must you work and contribute to society to be of value? What if you just don’t want to work, are you a bad person? Also, their are faith discussions in the story. The one person opted to turn to stone rather than join a group with another faith. Does this mean she isn’t value because she is faithful to her truth?

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STORY SUMMARY: The story is told in the 1st person by a woman in the late 1800’s working in a inner city garment factory. She comes out of the bathroom to see a fire breaks out. Women try and escape down the elevator shaft as smoke fills the room. She heads for the fire escape, but it collapses, killing everyone on it. Finally, she decides the best thing to do to prevent being burned to death it to jump to her death.

DISCUSSION: The story is a historical fiction version the Triangle Shirt factory fire. The story isn’t really about the fire though, it’s about suicide. Is it okay to kill yourself when you are being burned alive? What if that burning alive is depression. It feels like it will never end and it feels like killing yourself is the lessor pain. Nobody jumps out of a burning building because they think they are going to live, they jump because it’s better than being burned alive. How long are you required to suffer before you can stop your suffering? Are you required to never quit?

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STORY SUMMARY: The main character heads into the military supervisors office. It seems two soldiers have been captured terrorists who are threatening to kill them both unless the US Government tells them before the deadline which to kill, and which to go free. One is a woman, and the other is gay. They want the government to make a Sophie’s Choice, so to speak. The government decides to do neither and launch a rescue operation that fails. Both are killed. The story ends with the original solider who started the story locking himself in his room and killing himself. It turns out he was in a relationship with the woman and she was pregnant with his child.

DISCUSSION: Story is built around a Hobson’s choice. A choice whereby both option are terrible, and you must pick one, or both will happen. It’s interesting in that it makes us decide how we value different people. If they are both in the military, then make the government should not pick, so as not to encourage terrorists to kidnap others. Being in the military, you should know you may have to die for the country. Otherwise, maybe all people are of equal value. Maybe children are worth more? It is fair that he didn’t tell his superior officer about the pregnancy? This is part of the machismo culture whereby men aren’t allowed to feel things, and talk about how things affect them. In real life, of course, he would immediately have been removed from the situation.

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STORY SUMMARY: Three outcast witches are sent to San Francisco in the 1960’s to redeem themselves by causing corruption. They find drug addict street musician and his girlfriend and promise him riches and success if he kills and does as they advise. He does, and becomes a music sensation. Eventually, his girlfriend leaves him. He is finally brought down after his conversion is complete. The witches decide to stay and enjoy Woodstock.

DISCUSSION: This is a variation on Macbeth. The witches don’t seem to ever do anything, but simply to encourage him to do things we wanted to do anyway. He is so quit to turn. But maybe it’s not hard to find a degenerate drug addict musician? Was he always evil, and now he just had the chance to act on it? It seems he has a hole that he can’t fill regardless of how famous or rich. Really, he needs to focus on liking himself.

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STORY SUMMARY: A well dressed, older, black man is walking to work in a University town when he sees a college age white girl sitting on the curb crying. He decides to sit with her, and comfort her. As others walk by we are made aware of the daily micro-aggression of racism he must put up with every moment of his life. And yet, it’s clear he is able to shrug these aggression off and live a wonderful life without anger. In the end, we find out the girl just found out her father has died. She wonders if the man is the angel of her father come to comfort her one last time.

DISCUSSION: Super interesting story showing the cumulative effect of racism and how it pervades so many decisions. It’s a bit sad that the only way to create a caring black character is to get enough of their backstory to be sure they don’t have shady motives, while a white person wouldn’t have to prove their motives. The main character is just a man, but might as well be an angel he both makes us aware of the hundreds of decisions he has to make every day taking racism into account, while still not being hateful and trying to help others. Just a wonderful story about the way racism pervades every moment of life and decision-making.

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STORY SUMMARY: Children’s story that starts with a bunch of old tattered stuffed animals being found in a trunk by a woman. She can talk to the stuffed animals and says she will fix them back up. At first, the requests are simple, fix a torn ear… but later, the stuffed animals ask for more changes. The unicorn wants its horn removed. The panda wants to be less fat. The zebra wants its stripes removed. The final character, Sad Bear, who is always sad because he has a frown sewn on, is offered the chance to have his frown removed. He declines the offer to fix his sadness, because, he says, it is who is is, and he is okay with who he is.

DISCUSSION: The is a story about what we change, and how we accept others, and ourselves, as we are. What is an acceptable change? Fixing vision and teeth are fine, of course, but what about taking anti-depressants or body augmentation? Can we be accepting of others when the choose to make changes that we think are silly, or superficial? When it is okay to be clinically depressed, and simply accept that as who you are, or does it have to be fixed?

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STORY SUMMARY: The story takes place around a Senator who has proposed a bill that would require mandatory service for kids. He got the idea from the Nazi party, but means well in that it will get kids outside and teach them the value of volunteering. The bill goes over very badly and he now faces a formal censure from the Senate. He compromise is made and quietly withdraws the bill, in support of a supporting additions to the proposed annual budget.

DISCUSSION: Story does a good job of showing all the good things that came from sources that don’t live up to modern standards of morality. Does that mean we toss those ideas out, or those people out of our history books? Perhaps we simply teach a more complete version of history where people are not idealized. Even when we tell our history and role models to children, the explanations should be more complete. Can a good person have a good idea? Is a person all one thing, or all another? Singers and comedy people may be horrible people in real life, but does that make the art of lower quality?

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STORY SUMMARY: In a distant land, their 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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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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STORY SUMMARY: Sometimes 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 in 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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