Life Boat Ethics

[Cross Posted on Think Bowl]

Scenario: you're on a lifeboat that's just cast off from a sinking ship. The ship has ten people on it but can only safely hold seven. The occupants include: a doctor, a pregnant mother, two brothers who seem just a little bit shady, a little girl, about seven years old, an old Catholic priest, an eighty year old woman, an mentally retarded young man, a female supermodel, and yourself.

What do you do?

This type of scenario is known as "lifeboat ethics." I got the idea from this dialogue between and Ken Wilber. The dialogue discusses how ethics become extremely fuzzy the harder you look at them. Life isn't black and white, it's a rainbow. They then go on to discuss all these high falootin' ideas like universal compassion, taking the perspective of the other, etc. Then, Wilber makes a simple point: the only way any of these concepts do any good is if they work in extreme cases. He then outlines something similar to the scenario above.

This reminds me of a conversation I/others had with Mr. Orlando a month and a half ago. We were talking about the Dubai controversy, and I said something like, "Well, my opinion is that I wish we didn't have this problem." Mr. Orlando then said, "Wow, that's such a childish mentality." I was hurt. I thought this sort of thinking made me an idealist. Now, I realize it makes me a delusioned smuck. Wishing the problem weren't there doesn't solve the problem. It just makes it worse.

That being the case, what to do on this particular lifeboat. I'll post my response sometime in the next two days. In the meanwhile, have fun with it. You don't necessarily have to come up with an answer; it's just the thinking about it that matters. It's mental/ethical exercise. Exercise that muscle. :)

Namaste.