Lifeboat Ethics Essay

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Life Boat Ethics In the wake of the 1973 oil crisis, Garrett Hardin offers an argument as disturbing as it is compelling. Positioning himself in the style of the biblical prophets, forced to say the unpleasant things others cannot or will not, this self- proclaimed “human ecologist” uses a striking analogy to propose that policymakers in wealthy nations should cut off foreign aid and immigration, not only for their own sakes, but for the sake of poor. Most people who have a heart would be greatly pained to hear about the death of some unknown to them human that had the opportunity to be saved by those around them. This is basically the hurdle that Hardin had to jump over before actually ever being able to present his reasoning: how to tell the generally kind-hearted and caring readers that they must let some people die. Hardin intelligently and successfully tackles this situation through likening our world to a lifeboat, with the rich inside and the poor outside in the water. This puts the reader in a situation where they begin to acknowledge Hardin’s point, that there is simply not enough resources for everyone to survive. In fact, by setting up this life or death situation, he gives them almost no choice. This analogy also allows him to covertly point out that as a privileged human who helps the poor that you are in fact leading yourself to your eventual doom. No matter where you look, poverty and homelessness is around every corner. Most homeless citizens you see on sides of the roads, holding signs that beg for empathy and money which they usually receive. Although you think you've helped them, in reality they will be there the next day preforming the same acts if they were performing in one of Shakespeare’s plays. The truth behind this is much similar to the children's story “ If You Give a Mouse a Cookie” by Laura Numeroff where giving a mouse a cookie

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