Man overboard

No room at the inn.

As I said yesterday, I thought I'd switch to an ethical dilemma. This one is that old story about the lifeboat which is in danger of being capsized if any attempt is made to rescue any more survivors. I've always thought that the pragmatic solution is to accept that there's only room for a certain number of people and that a number are unlikely to survive. The altruistic solution is for everyone to drown, thus ensuring that no one feels left out. The dictatorial solution is for the captain and his inner circle to purge the survivors so that the people who could see that there was no room for them won't feel so bad about drowning when some of the lucky ones ended up being turfed into the drink. The practical solution is to tow the bodies behind the lifeboat because you never know when cannibals might turn up expecting lunch.

In reality, you'd hope to hell that you never ended up in a situation where people were going to die and there was nothing you could do about it without endangering the live of others.

Comments

bezdomny said…
Would it not be possible to have people take turns swimming along side the lifeboat?
Uncle Angel said…
You have a good point. It might help that fat bastard, Tom, lose weight.
bezdomny said…
Also, a sharks might cull a few of the swimmers, making the lifeboat more viable.
Uncle Angel said…
True. Since sharks are merely instinctive, they have no particular issues about eating people, and thus the benefit to the survivors in the lifeboat is incurred incidentally.

Of course, the ones on a low-fat diet might want to avoid Tom.

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