Nightlife: The Question We Don't Want To Answer (And the Choice We Don't Want To Make)

Shady
Jan 1, 2015
2 min read

It's common enough in the books and movies: The main character is faced with the terrible choice to either save the world or to escape with the people they love the most unharmed. And even though they know how selfish it would be to choose their loved ones over the entire Earth and every living soul on it, they can't help but be drawn to the idea. It's understandable. Of course we want to take care of the people we love. In the books, our hero always manages to save both the world and the people they love. (Well, usually. Most authors don't go with a noble sacrifce ending because they know all the fans will never forgive them if they go that route.)

Of course, books/movies aren't the real world. And don't give me that crap about reality TV because we all know that's not real either. In the real world, chaces are you'd get one or the other. And even though people would like to say they would be noble and save the world, chances are it would be awful for them to choose anyways. I'd be interested to see what they would really choose - the world, or the people they love.

Okay, that was a bit morbid. Sorry.

So, after reading Brave New World (by Aldous Huxley), I got to thinking about this. (And because I speak french like a two year old, I wasn't reading the original version.) One of the questions the book asks is if it's more important to be free or to be happy. If you're happy because you never have to choose, is that better than being unhappy if you get a choice on how to live your life? Maybe it seems simple - freedom = happiness. But think about it for a moment. Seriously, I'll wait. These are just some pixels, they're not going anywhere.

..........................................

Thought about it? Good.

Not so easy, is it? Would it really be so easy to have both? I think it's easier said than done.

Going back to our saving the world thing: If you didn't have the freedom to choose one or the other - say, you had to choose the world, and you couldn't disobey - would it make it any easier than having the freedom to choose and having it be up to you? Or, on the other hand, if you had to choose your family and other loved ones over the world and you didn't have a choice, would it make you feel any less selfish, since it wasn't your choice?

I really don't know. I wish I did.