Would most people agree to human sacrifice in exchange for living in paradise?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Imagine that a nigh-omnipotent being appears on Earth. He establishes his bona fides by walking into the busiest ER in your nation’s largest city on a Saturday night and healing every injury therein, and then proceeds to the cancer wards to do the same for all the hopeless cases. Having gotten everyone’s attention, he announces that that his nigh-omnipotent, that he’s not currently interested in being worshipped, and that he will make the aforementioned city a paradise for one year. At the end of that year he will announce his terms for spreading Eden to the rest of the country.

The NOB is as good as his word. The morning after he makes his announcement, all violent crime in the city ceases, as he instantly stops any attempts to murder, rape, assault, or steal. He also supplies everyone with endless free energy, endless free food of perfect quality and infinite variety, and so forth. Every mechanical device in the city is raised to the height of perfection. All illnesses, both physical and psychological, are healed, and though no one is made immortal, he guarantees that no one will die before the age of 150, at which point any given person can decide whether they wish to continue or to pass away in their sleep. There’s no longer any taxes, because there’s no longer any need for them; the NOB zaps into existence anything that is needed. And so forth. It’s paradise, after all.

Time passes. On Day 366 of the New Eden, everyone is desperate to know what needs to be done to spread this bounty to the rest of the nation in perpetuity. The NOB says it’s simple. Once a year, he’d like a sacrifice, or rather sacrifices. Seven men and seven women, to be specific, brough to him to be killed. He doesn’t care where we get them, and he doesn’t intend to explain how they’ll be killed; that’s his business We can take people off death row,or we can have a lottery, or we can import 'em from other nations. He doesn’t care. But he expects this to happen, or he’s gone. Moreover, he wants the people of your nation to agree to this, so there needs to be an election. If a majority of the electorate agrees, he’ll extend his powers to the rest of the nation, and, moreover, protect the people of your nation from all foreign enemies just in case anybody’s jealous.

What do you think will be the results of this election?

2

I don’t see why anyone would vote against it. for the deaths of 14 thousands would be saved. You’d have a greater chance of a loved one being killed by a drunk driver then being sacrificed.

I bet in a country as large as the USA we can find 14 suicidal people each year who are tired of living and we could use them. There might be some work working out the solution but I can’t see any reason to vote against it.

3

Actually you might have a little difficulty finding those 14 suicidal people if the NOB does what he says. He cures all illneses, both mental and physical, remember?

4

If we’re immortal and protected from foreign enemies, we can just raid our neighbors for sacrifices, right?

5

Not immortal as such, but protected against the ravages of age.

Yeah, that would work, I suppose. And it also brings up some other uncomfortable issues.

6

I personally like the death row idea… hell, we could probably find 7 men on Death Row here in Texas who are pretty much dead meat in the next couple of months anyway.

The seven women might be tougher; I think there’s maybe one woman on Death row in Texas, and probably less than 7 nationwide.

7

Skald, buddy…you know me. You also know I’m not having some watery nigh omnipotent tart hurling scimitars or anything else in my general vicinity. NOB gonna have to die. That’s how I roll.

8

Your second paragraph is half the reason I brought up the “seven women” requirement, the other half being my inability to have a conversation without making a subtle allusion to Poseidon.

Death row prisoners won’t work indefinitely, since the NOB will be making crime impossible. Likewise the suicidal persons; no one’s suffer from clinical depression any more, no one’s suffering from financial ruiniation, etc. In thirty or forty years we’ll be having to do a lottery or raiding Canada, Mexico, or whatnot for the victims.

I agree with your implicit rejection of the vote against, since the NOB is clearly doing this either because he’s a dick. There’s no other way to read it. But why a tart? Did you watch Angel this morning or something?

9

I think we’re a nation of selfish motherfuckers and it would pass in a Miami Minute.

10

Only if you assume that the life of non-Americans is equal to the life of Americans. And that’s obviously just silly.

11

Nah. Just gearing up to go all Monty Python on his ass. I’ll bite his kneecaps off.

That noted, the vote may be more interesting than you’d think. Besides pissing me off, doing this thing is going to seriously annoy Old Money, and it’s made for exploiting the Fundie masses as well. NOB sounds a lot like that Anti-Christ fella they keep preaching about. Proposition 8 was a fart in a tea kettle compared to a vote against Jersey # 666.

Is NOB gonna tell the sheeple that if they vote him down, he’ll make the same offer to another nation? Possibly after laying the smite down to show his displeasure?

12

I think the vote would be very interesting. I think a lot of people will be inclined to vote yes. Those who don’t will fall into three categories:

Kants: We can’t do this because of the categorical imperative and all that!

Oakminsters: We can’t do this because we will be surrendering our personal autonomy! No amount of prosperity can compensate for that!

Skalds: Well, the Kants are full f crap, but the Oakminsters are right. Also, this is a trick. He’s doing this because he wants to corrupt us for his own amusement. But bear in mind that if we vote No, the people of Mexico may well vote Yes.

I’m not sure how much I’d trust the Skalds.

I think that NOB is going to say, “Look, I don’t actually need anything from you guys. I can, after all, kill any however many of you I choose at will. That is what nigh-omnipotent means. I’m doing this because I want to see what you do.”

13

Sounds like a opening offer Satan might make.

14

Opening offer? So you think we could maybe bid him up a bit?

15

Hell, no. In an ideal society, not a lot of people are going to be willing candidates for sacrifice. So it’s either the morally wrong route (raiding neighboring nations for sacrifices) or constantly wondering when your number is going to be up.

16

MirrorOak, being somewhat more pragmatic, figures the thing to do would be to somehow become the Chooser of the Slain, or failing that, to control/influence the process by which the volunteers are chosen.

Plenty of options. We probably have enough prisoners, including the ones at GITMO, to last 20-30 years, but may run low on women. When we run out of prisoners, we could:

  1. Have a “senior lottery”–oldest 15 folks around volunteer to serve their country…or get dragged away kicking and screaming…whatever…at that age they can’t kick very hard anyway. I suspect once a critical mass of 150+ year olds is achieved, everyone 150+ is in the lottery.

  2. Random lottery for all adults.

  3. Random lottery for all adults that can’t/don’t “buy out”.

  4. Random lottery limited to only those present at the annual State of the Union address, including any chain of command types at “undisclosed locations”.
    Or, I could just found a Church of NOB, and allow the inevitable swarm of marks to fund my decadent lifestyle while earning the most noble privilege of being fed to NOB.

17

Skald, you’ve described Ursula K. Le Guin’s short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.”

Text here. Description here.

18

When you say “seven men and seven women”, can they be babies?

19

This sounds to me that it is WAY safer than the world that we live in now so I am certainly for it. Who gets picked doesn’t really matter to me assuming it is not one of my daughters. As long as those that are picked are over the age 18, let me be the executioner. I would definitely take on that burden for everyone else to have such an idealized society. Let’s not kid ourselves. Everyone dies and many of them tragically. Fourteen people is a drop in the casket compared to what real life brings. I barely understand the question. It is like asking if you would like a $1 bill or a $100 bill with a small crease in it.

20

I guarantee that every year there will be 14 volunteers. People will develop cult like devotion, and line up. There will probably be a waiting list. These are the people that donate to televangelists, REALLY drink the kool aid, and Mormons. Curing mental illness does not mean the end of the chronically stupid.