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Truman Burbank's diary

2030, August 4th

Dear diary,

I got my first job today, my job is to flip burgers at this wonderland called McDonalds. Did you know that burgers there cost like 2 dollars? So cheap! And they have this big mac thing where you have two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun. Anyway, I can't wait to start my new job! Anyway, Sylvia is calling me for dinner, I think tonight is “Pizza hut” night. Ha! Hilarious, pizza hut, like a hut but with pizzas! Oh Sylvia is getting loud, I gotta go.

2030, August 28th

Dear diary,

Wow! My first paycheck! Oh my gosh I have so much planned to do, I’m gonna use the money to do some decorations around the house. Anyway, I’ll be going to the bank tomorrow!

2030, August 29th

Dear diary,

I really don’t know, I mean..... Sylvia explained the whole mortgage thing to me and, it sounds like an absolute scam. I mean of course we don’t have enough money for a house but why do we have to pay extra just to buy one? I mean doesn’t the bank already have enough money? That doesn’t sit right..... I mean in Seahaven things were...

Is the real world really that cruel? Is this really what the truth is?

2030, September 16th

Dear diary,

These past few weeks have been hectic. Yeah. I got fired. Something about cutting labor costs because of some crash in the financial market? How does that happen? Did a car with a bunch of money in it crash or something? Did the money get burnt? Sylvia tried explaining it to me but I can’t make heads or tails of it. Does the well being of everyone really belong to a few people with lots of money? That doesn't seem fair at all, I mean I thought that everyone had control over their fate. Anyway, I’m going to go looking for jobs. Life is much harder here.

2030, December 24 (Christmas)

Dear diary,

These past few days have been hectic... I got a job smelting iron at a factory not far from here. They say my job might be taken by a machine in the future so I’m doing my best to expand my job prospects. Anyway, they gave me Christmas off. I scraped together and I got Sylvia some new canvases for her art project. We are doing our best we are struggling. Today made me think. Was Seahaven better than the real world? I mean Seahaven had happy citizens, there were rarely any homeless. Everything was perfect. But I suppose that was what was wrong about Seahaven. It’s pitiful perfection. Sure the real world is ugly, mean and cruel but that’s only because we make it that way. If you can look past the rich riding their chrome horses earned on the backs of their slaves then yeah, the world is beautiful. Not because it works, or because it fails, but because we try. Lots of people tell me I should have stayed in Seahaven but how could I? The world was out there, waiting. The only crime was not to try, and isn’t that what life is all about?

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Omelas’ biggest flaw

Our story begins with a 14 year old kid named Simon in a Chemistry class. Even though he is 14, he has managed to convince the professor for a college to allow him to drop in his classes. Simon never bothered with a childhood, he decided that to do everything he wanted in life, he would have to grow up quick. No time to play, he could play later. Of course, because we are dealing with Omelas, he is perfect in every shape way and form. His environment is perfect, his parents are perfect, even his failures are perfect. This is the story of our “hero”, Simon discovering why.

A small poke from my fellow student jolts me into consciousness. My eyes drift towards the screen. The teacher was talking about atomic subshell notations using nobles gasses.

“Integrated rate law can be written as rate is equal to the rate constant times the slowstep concentrations to the power of the order and depending on the order, the unit for K, the rate constant, can be written as seconds power negative one, molarity power negative one seconds power.....”

Professor James then continues to talk about how to derive integrated rate law based on the slow step. I still can't believe professor James let me drop into his classes. Everything is going great, my grades are up, I just assembled my PC and my parents are discussing my allowance. I love Omelas. I turn my attention to my worksheet and start filling out the rest of it. Good, there, everything is done, perfect. I wait for the teacher to finish her lecture before leaving. I finished all my work, clarified all my misunderstandings and was heading home for the day. My parents said that they had something planned for me so I had better go home and rid myself of the stink of school before they got home.

“Alexa, shower sequence.” I mumbled. With that one command, the bathroom door opened and the shower nozzles began to prime. I took my clothes off then raised my arms above my head. “Simon, please close your eyes and walk through the spray.” Alexa kindly nudged. I walked through. “Shower complete, please towel off and enjoy the rest of your day.” I quickly dry off and put on a fresh set of clothes before plopping down in front of my PC. A faint scowl came to my face as I booted my PC up. My life is more or less perfect.

After 20 minutes of gaming, the door to our house opens and Alexa welcomes my parents home. I take my headset off and greet them. The look at me then look away. Huh, must have had a bad day. As I exit the match and shut my PC off, my parents do their daily routine of showering and changing when they get home. I sit by the door, my parents are dilly-dallying which is very unlike them. They shuffle out and we are off to wherever we are supposed to go.

The beautiful scenery of Omelas passes by us as we drive towards our destination. Eventually, we arrive at this nice house. Suddenly, it dawns on me. We were getting a pet! That would explain the smell. I’ve always wanted a pet. I begin to smile. I rush out the car to get the door for my parents. They don’t seem very happy to be here, maybe they both had bad experiences with animals? But anyway, I’ve been wishing for a dog forever and finally, today is the day I get one. I open the door for my parents. It doesn't look like a pet store. I follow my parents down the stairs. The smell of animal excrement begins to intensify. Then I see it.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh my good God.

What the hell is that.

It looks at me.

Jesus is it sitting in it’s own filth?

“Why?” I ask.

My mom gives my dad a look.

“Well, it’s like this, your life is perfect, right? Well this is why. The only reason we can live our lives is because it suffers. Under no conditions can we show him kindness because if we do, all the unhappiness that the child in there suffers will be unleashed on us. We can not free him for the same reason. I know this is a lot to take but you will learn to live with it eventually.” My dad says.

“Can I go home?”

“Sure Simon.”

The rest of the day goes by in a blur, everywhere I look I see the child’s suffering. I lay awake on my bed, trying to get myself to fall asleep. I can’t. I wish I had never known, I wish I had never seen it. I wish my parents never told me. I wish I was never born. I don’t want to know, Jesus Christ let me forget it. His suffering is my pleasure. His suffering is my pleasure. I am the product of his suffering. Please erase this memory from my head. I hate Omelas.

And our story ends with Simon crying himself to sleep. This would become a norm for the rest of his life, no longer does Simon strive for excellence because he knows that the only reason he can strive for excellence is because the child is sitting in his own filth, crying itself to sleep. Simon finished school, got a degree and got a job.

24 years later Simon was found dead in his home with a glass of cyanide in his hand and scars on his wrist.

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A hypothesis to why knowing more is better

(This is a short story)

Take two hypothetical situations. Number one, the “average Joe.” Average Joe begins his day by being woken up by his alarm clock. Next, he goes through the regular sequence of showering, urinating, eating his breakfast and brushing his teeth. Next, Joe gets on the 8:34 train to his workplace. He says hi to his fellow workmen and then begins his great work, organizing nuts from largest to smallest. From there he works until 6:00 where he grabs his hat, bids his fellow workmen adieu and saunters off home. Average Joe pays his taxes and may or may not have a girlfriend (I’ll leave that up to you). He lives in a one bedroom apartment, complete with a shower and a kitchen. His interests include fishing, dogs and, of course, nuts. Average Joe did go to school but never cared much for it. For him, learning was a pain. He was perfectly fine with living out his life. His friends had the same attitude. No sense in working harder than you have to.

Of course, to the rest of you, average Joe may not seem very happy. He has a boring job, you’ve probably decided Joe doesn't have a girlfriend and his interests seem very mundane. However, Joe is incredibly happy. For him his life is great. You may be asking why. It is because he doesn't know better. From his perspective, average Joe has already achieved everything in his life. He doesn't know about stock market swindles, rich billionaires and the sense that he could accomplish more if he had just worked a little harder. In his limited knowledge, he is happy. Now say if average Joe was someday was to watch tv and suddenly learn of everything he is missing out on. He would be miserable. Organizing nuts by size will no longer satisfy him. He will realize that his life is mundane and terrible. So in this sense, knowing more isn’t better, right? Wrong.

Our second hypothetical situation begins with a struggling musician bargaining at the wet market. Let’s call him John. John’s life is the opposite of Joe’s. He isn’t woken up by an alarm clock every morning; he wakes up on his own accord. From there, John composes music and practices the piano. John strives every day to be excellent. He dreams of being like the great composers of our time, Bach, Beethoven, P.I. Tchaikovsky and of course, Lennon and McCartney. John doesn't have a shower; he showers down at the YMCA. He lives there. Sometimes John eats and sometimes he doesn't. He went to school and immediately knew that he would be the greatest musician ever. He was accepted to the best music college however his parents couldn't pay for it. From there he spent his college years dropping in on various composition classes. John knows he is poor and it bothers him. John knows that his life is pretty bad.

John’s life seems terrible, right? Yes, it is. So why mention him in the first place? I don’t know; maybe it’s because John’s life has more meaning then Joe’s? But John is suffering whereas Joe isn't.

Allow me to introduce a third scene. Joe is invited to a party. He walks in and talks to some of his work friends. They laugh, drink, discuss nut sizes. Then John shows up and begins to play the piano. Everyone stops their conversations to listen to John. Joe doesn't seem to understand what is going on. Joe thought that it wasn't anything special, the dude was just plonking notes on a piano. Everyone around Joe was intent on listening to the music. It was beautiful, but Joe didn't understand it. He couldn't appreciate the music because he didn’t know any better. Joe never really liked music that much. If only Joe knew to enjoy it, he would be crying, laughing, dancing to the music. But sadly, he doesn't. John, on the other hand, seeing that others were enjoying his music, smiles, because his music and managed to bring joy to these peoples lives. And so Joe continues to live in his small, flat, world while John fills the empty canvas of his world with his elegant musical prowess.