The Omelas to end all Omelas

Imagine, if you will, a city. One of the most beautiful cities you’ve ever seen. A veritable utopia, where everyday the weather is bright and sunny, everyone is happy, the horse parades arrive on time and where everyone has a helicopter (or not if they hate helicopters, this is a perfect city after all). But then you become aware that there is a single child. A child locked up in a dark room, wallowing in its own excrement and being fed nothing but the most tasteless of gruel. And you realize that this paradise can only exist due to the existence of this child’s suffering.

This is the part where most people roll their eyes and let out a loud groan, because they have heard this a million times before and knows exactly the city that’s being described here. It’s Omelas. Or rather, the original Omelas, Omelas Prime. You know how great it is. You know about the child. You even know about the ones who walk away from Omelas. Even people who only have a surface level of history and world geography, know about it.

What resulted out of Omelas’ existence, is less well documented. Or rather there are a wide variety of sources, sometimes contradicting one another. Or even negating entire events. What has been wildly known, is that people were offended by the existence of the Ur-Omelas, berating the ones who walk away from Omelas, claiming they should have done something. That’s why decided upon themselves to solve Omelas? How?

“By building another Omelas, of course.”

(People have questioned the need to build another Omelas, whilst they could easily solve the problems of the original city. For the sake of length, we won’t go into this argument. But as a side-note, the common held belief is that, if you want to solve a problem as large as Omelas, it is best to recreate the conditions so you can pinpoint the problem before enacting on it.)

At the time of writing, there are currently 272 Omelas in the world. Or rather, 272 official Omelas. The exact amount is unknown since last counting. World organizations have trouble differentiating between all the cities that are either called Omelas or are Omelas in nature (the latter will be explained further on). What makes their job even harder, is that more often than not, two Omelas who lie close to each other, merge into one. Because the cities keep expanding and merge into each other. Which make their job even harder. Should they count it as two separate cities or one entire city? And does that negate the results of the previous Omelas or does it count as something new entirely. In any case, the point is that the world consists of a lot of Omelas.

(Update: at the time of writing, the writer has been informed that 14 more Omelas are being built. And those are the ones that are officially known at this point.)

Many treatises and papers have been written about what consists as an Omelas. On a very basic level, an Omelas must consist of buildings that form an infrastructure that approximates a city. The style and size doesn’t matter. An Omelas can look lavish or simple. There are Omelas who look baroque, or entirely Gothic. Some employ brutalist aspects, whilst some are entirely built around that aspect. Omelas that employ art deco styles, turn out to be the more popular touristic hot-spots. The Omelas that merge into one, are the most interesting architecturally. Where both started with a deliberate style, that meld into a brand new style, complete with its own characteristics. A perfectly illustrated example would be the two Omelas where the one that was modernistic, combined with the one employing Gaudi-inspired architecture. The two contrasting styles became one, creating what is now known as Gaudernism.

Whatever the style though, there needs to be a city to exist. And all the people need to be happy and their needs met. Otherwise it wouldn’t be a utopia. And there must be a child suffering. That’s the foundation for every Omelas. Utopia, child, suffering. And in an effort to replicate the conditions of the original as best as possible, many enthusiastic citizens are willing to contribute as much as possible to create the best conditions. It is heartwarming to know that some even donated their own excrement, so that the child would have enough to wallow in it.

So how does one get around of solving an Omelas? Funnily enough, that’s a question without an answer. Because no-one succeeded in doing that.

The general starting position is to simply rescue the child. And there are definitely a handful of men who propose themselves to be the one true rescuer. Based more on their privilege and patriarchal status than genuine compassion. And indeed, these are the men who often lie dead on the doorstep of the buildings housing the child. Because not only do the cities replicate the original Omelas in terms of concept. They also replicate the severity of its security measures. At that point most citizens decide to just give up. Because if the hero can’t do it, who will?

Other Omelas deliberately lessened security measures, in the hopes of learning from those mistakes. And at first, it worked. Some heroes actually got away with the child. And everything looked great at first. After all, Omelas was solved. But then nobody knew what to do with the child at the time. Some just abandoned them, leaving it alone in the streets to fend for themselves. It was the Omelas child, right? Surely the city or someone would take care of them? Unfortunately, the status of being the most notorious child, doesn’t mean people would actually come and help you. Ironically, because the child was suffering once more, Omelas’ prosperity would continue. Though no-one was aware of it happening.

There were cases where the child got to live with the hero. Which always ends disastrously. For starters, the hero has no grasp or knowledge on how to educate a child, let alone one that is as feral and damaged as a child of Omelas. Witnesses say the hero frequently shouts at the child in anger, unable to control it. The child in response, howls back, out of confusion and pain. These situations always end in tragedy unfortunately. Sometimes, the hero outright murders the child. Other times, the police has to step in, because of the number of abuse allegations.

When some Omelas heard about these events, they thought to do things differently. They assumed that, because the hero was a man, these situations wouldn’t happen with a woman, right? Aren’t women more gentle by nature, they reasoned. Wouldn’t they give the child a much more wholesome education and loving home than any man could ever give?

In the end, it turned out that there is no discernible evidence that there is a difference between men and women. Most children ended up in the same way like with their male counterparts, dead or abused.

If the child survived in those cases, they are brought back to their cell, where their suffering would start again. In the cases that the child is killed, the man or woman they lived with, would take their place. Instead of creating conditions to suffer, they have to live with the guilt and sin of killing and abusing a child. Experts haven’t decided if their suffering makes a better or worse alternative source than that of the child’s. But despite that, those Omelas seem to be thriving as well as an average Omelas does.

(At the time of writing, it hasn’t been recorded if an Omelas utilized transgender, non-binary or other gender non-conforming people as a hero. It has been speculated that some Omelas did, but never recorded it, because of the ongoing marginalized status LGBTQ+ people still seem to have around the world. The author of this document would like to implore any Omelas to do better and be more inclusive when it comes to the queer community.)

The fact that there wasn’t a difference between a child or adult’s suffering, was fuel for the Omelas critics. After all, if it doesn’t make a difference, why not use a volunteer? (Though ironically, when pressed on volunteers from their side, they suddenly became silent.) Which was the starting point of some Omelas. Not only to replace the child with any adult, but to replace it with a masochist. After all, why can it not be beneficial for every party involved?

And so, a masochist was employed to take the place of a child. At first, things went well. The Omelas prospered as any regular Omelas did. But it always ended after a few weeks, when the masochist got bored and left the building. And nobody thought to stop him, because no-one anticipated he’d just go and leave like that. It turns out that letting someone willingly suffer, but not offer more variety than that, makes for a very bored person. As a result, those Omelas perished and collapsed as a result, leaving nothing but ruins.

To solve this problem, other Omelas thought to keep the masochist locked in. And just with the previous cases, the cities prospered until the inevitable boredom once again set in. And in those instances, that boredom starts to seep into the city’s unconsciousness as well. Where the citizens live in a haze-like state, as if they’re constantly sleep-walking, rendering any progress inert. When asked by national and international organizations to let the masochist out, in an attempt to revive the city, their answers are met with indifference. As if the people lost the ability to care.

(Health organizations warn to not visit those Omelas, as visitors will fall prey to the atmosphere becoming part of the city. If you or a loved one, came into contact with these cities or is struggling with general indifference, kindly reach out to your local mental health institutions or help lines. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.)

What we just described, were the regular Omelas cases. The ones that have been tried over and over again in the hope of doing something differently. Of course, there are some outliers, people who thought to go an entirely different route. For example, there are the Omelas not in name, but in spirit, such as the city of Adañacal.

Adañacal is a city that started out as any Omelas city. But instead of looking for a solution, it only adopted the Omelas structure for convenience sake. What it does differently, however, is that it eases the child’s suffering a little bit in an effort to differentiate themselves from the average Omelas. Their child at least gets to get outside once in a while and experiences the sun, whilst nearby children throw rocks at it for entertainment.

However, the city got embroidered in an internal long-term war with a nearby Omelas. There isn’t an exact reason given as to why both parties started to sabotage one another. Some think the Omelas was jealous for having a city that treats their child marginally better and have generally the same benefits as them. Others assumed it was a question of national pride. The fact is that both cities try to undermine their own efforts and successes in the hopes of bringing the other down. Whilst both cities have had their wins and losses, they are overall locked in an eternal stalemate with no clear winner emerging. Though from initial reports, it might be that Adañacal might come on top in the end, regarding they plan for the long term.

But let’s leave Adañacal behind for the moment and focus on one of the more extravagant and definitely bigger outliers, namely what’s colloquially known as the white Omelas. (That wasn’t its original name, but it stuck, because all the buildings were white.)

A billionaire from the former USA bought a large patch of land in what used to be the African continent and cordoned it off, claiming independence and restricting access to any visitors. A large wall adorns the borders of said land, completely isolating the inside from the outside world. As if the founder wanted it to be as completely closed of from the outside as much as possible. The billionaire himself claimed that it was vital because , according to him, “the immersion wouldn’t be ruined”. The meager reports that came from the inside at the beginning, described it as stepping into and other-worldly land, far removed from anything we knew. Which created mass confusion, since no-one understood why, in order to solve a global problem, you had to create a place that was completely different from the actual world. (The billionaire refused to comment.)

Whatever the case, all of that didn’t matter when the news came from the cordoned area that they solved the Omelas problem. The whole world had burst into rapturous cries of joy when the news broke… only to end in a huge let-down. It turned out that the solution the billionaire proposed was just killing the population of the entire city. Which is what he attempted to do within his own little cocoon. Or rather, at least a re-enactment of that killing. Actors were hired and relocated in order to bring his vision to life. And whilst nobody was supposed to be killed in real life, multiple actors did get wounded. Some even died, because of negligent safety regulations. These could be all avoided, if it weren’t for the billionaire having an aversion to unions.

All hopes however, ended with the inspectors claiming the solution the project was offering, was completely unfeasible and unrealistic. These are most likely euphemisms, since the actual project proposed a lot of conditions not being held up by basic reality. For it to have worked, civilisation had to collapse, aliens had to have landed and intermingled with the humans in order to create a warrior-like caste, capable of decimating whole cities. And for some reason one of those was accompanied with a monk that has turned into a monkey. And that warrior was the one that decimated the city. It sounds strange now, but imagine if you were one of those inspectors and saw this happening.

In the end, the much-hoped co-operation didn’t came to be. The inspectors politely declined, whereupon the billionaire started to hurl slurs at them and shouted that they couldn’t understand his vision. As a result, the American locked himself up in his domain once again, re-enacting new scenarios, not related to Omelas, in the strange little world he created. However, the story of the white Omelas created a rather substantial following around the globe. Some are looking forward to the new stories the billionaire is fabricating. And others have volunteered to become actors themselves in the plays.

Getting back to the Omelas question, the next section gives the example of a more extreme outlier. Those are cities not to be Omelas in name, and sort-of Omelas in spirit. The best know example would be the city of Um-Helat (Not to be confused with Um-Helaut, where the city’s prosperity is founded on the suffering of a little German boy). Um-Helat has been described by its founder as a wonderful alternative to Omelas. A “utopia that can be rightfully called a utopia”. Where people who come across harmful ideas are eradicated before they can spread it. How it works is that social workers kill the “contaminated” as they describe it. And if they have any children, the social workers will continue its education.

Whilst Um-Helat has been praised for its unique vision, it has also garnered its detractors. Some raised suspicion that the city isn’t the utopia it claims itself to be. Even though Um-Helat claims there is no poverty, homeless people have been reported on the streets. Others questioned the need for using social workers to kill people. Wouldn’t it be better if they were allocated to help disabled and marginalized people rather than executing people?

However, the biggest criticism is reserved to what those harmful ideas actually are. The way it works is that those harmful ideas are being spread over the local radio. And it isn’t clear how much you have to listen to it, before you become a target. Is it a minute, an hour… 15 seconds? Many social workers, who were interviewed, have different opinions about what amounts to a good delay in killing. Some immediately go for the kill, others like to wait after the person has finished listening to the broadcast.

In addition, some questions have been brought up about the content of those harmful ideas being promoted. A document containing the texts has been brought to government instances. And rather than a list of commands or slogans, it appears to be a short story. And even then, literary experts couldn’t find anything that would indicate that this story would cause any harm. From what we know, it seems to be a story about a woman about coming to terms with being a helicopter. It isn’t very clear what the link is with the story and harming people. But upon further investigation, it seems that the writer was the target of a harassment campaign after publishing that story. What’s more, it turned out that the founder of Um-Helat herself was also at the forefront of said campaign. In fact, she was one of the few who claimed that it was a story that propagated harm.

Nevertheless, it seems that this method shows results indeed. Or rather, the method proved to be too effective. Thanks to the unrestricted radio broadcasts, entire districts have been wiped out. Which in turn, led to Um-Helat having the highest rate of orphans, more than any city even. All orphanages in the city, are already over maximum capacity. Which meant many children had to get relocated to other orphanages in other cities. Which also brought an indirect result to other Omelas, the ones where the hero got the child out. Only to find they couldn’t leave it in an orphanage, because it was too full already. Which is why the child got abandoned or had to live with the hero in the first place.

Whatever the case, it seems that the legacy of Omelas is still hanging over humanity like a grim specter. The ones who walked away from the original Omelas couldn’t adjust to life outside the city. Some have died wandering the globe, not wanting to visit another Omelas. Others are being taken advantage of, for not adjusting to the new environment. There are even stories that they even kidnapped children in order to recreate the conditions of Omelas to find some measly comfort.

There is a general feeling of exhaustion and dread all over the world. It gets tiring to put a large amount of resources into something and still have no solution in sight. Everyone wants to quit and have a normal life instead. Unfortunately, we cannot give up. We have to continue for those who walked away from Omelas and for the children who suffer in Omelas. We are getting closer and closer to the goal. Hopefully, the next one will finally be the Omelas to end all Omelas.

Special thanks to Raquel S. Benedict and everyone at the Rite Gud Discord server. This dumb short story couldn’t be made without the podcast and you guys.