Analysis Of The Child In The Punishment By David Brooks

Every human being, old enough to understand what is right or wrong, have their own sense of morality. In order to keep their morality, there are times where certain things, such as the truth or other people, have to be sacrificed. As a result of those sacrifices, there are times in life where we have to make decisions that make us question our own morality. For example, questions like “is it okay to mislead people for the greater good?” and “is saving five people and killing one better than saving one man and killing five people?” make people question their own sense of morality. In other words, both questions are asking the age old question “do the needs of the many overcome the need of the one?” Due to different people with different opinions, any choice can be correct; however, it is wrong to believe that the need of the one overcomes the need of …show more content…
In the article “The Child in the Basement,” David Brooks explains that many people live in societies where there will always be “a child in the basement,” but they make themselves believe that it is okay for few to suffer in order for the rest to thrive. Similar to the “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” most people in today’s societies believe that it is okay for one to suffer just for the rest to be okay. This shows that people believe that it is okay for one to suffer for the overall success of the society, so that will make it wrong to believe that it is okay for one’s needs to be ahead of the rest, by social standards. Moreover, Brooks states that most people do not think it is justifiable for a human to be treated as an object, yet they do not live by those moral imperatives since life is filled with many trade-offs. Once again, due to social beliefs, it is wrong for the one to be more important than the