Freckleship

in #philosophy8 years ago (edited)

Sleeping is hard so let's do a thought experiment:

At what point do disagreeable and irrational ideas become unacceptable in your ideal society?

Let's say you're on a spaceship with 100 people leaving an exploding earth. They've chosen you as the new captain/monarch of what's left of the human race. They've willingly given you absolute power.

One of those 100 people passionately believes that having freckles is a heinous deformity and shouldn't be allowed in the new world. They are adamant and will not budge on this view, no matter what anyone says.

Some events happen.

1 They express this opinion to you.

2 They express this opinion to some others.

3 They convince a small group of 4 people to agree with them.

4 They express this opinion publicly to the ship.

5 They tell the people with freckles that it's their duty to abstain from procreating so the new world will be freckle-free.

6 The people with freckles understandably react with anger. They, and their supporters, come to you seeking leadership, asking you to silence this nonsense.

7 The anti-frecklers argue back that they aren't doing anything harmful, they're just expressing a view. They would never dream of forcing this view on people with freckles by harming them directly. They simply want their opinion heard.

8 The dispute gains momentum. 5 more people move to the anti-freckle camp, bringing it to 10 total. Arguments are breaking out. It is dampening morale on the ship.

9 No violence has yet occurred, but the people with freckles express to you that they feel alienated and unsafe.

10 The anti-frecklers, now 15 of them and growing, refuse to work alongside people with freckles. They demand accommodation for their views, which requires that their work be done in separate shifts from the people with freckles. Organizing this will be a huge task, but you know it may quell tensions on the ship.

The ship cannot function with fewer than 90 people. If you remove or imprison all of the anti-frecklers at point 10, everyone will die and humanity will end forever.

You can do anything you want at any of the 10 points in this story. What do you do, and at what point?

edit: number formatting

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