Edward_L._Sin
New member
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2010
- Messages
- 21
- Reaction score
- 9
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Libertarian
Short Story
The train tracks contrasted with the night, because a midnight train the Rager rampaged towards the destination the subsequent train station, shining the lights onto the train tracks and begetting the effects of a blur of sorts to any passerby. The driver of the train Alent biv Am was an average Joe. In contrast with the gangsters and all the other troublemakers that constituted a considerable portion of his society and were constantly ridiculed for their burden on same society, everyone always found, in their deepest sentiment, that his lifestyle was higher than the aforementioned ones -- that he was apart of the people whose lifestyles were the most honorable and the most virtuous of them all, like the athletes of the Ancient Olympics. With a glorious wife, whom he has been married for forty-two years without a single case of domestic violence, and three children, whose health was a benefit to the monthly budget of the Ams, Alent was a man of personal responsibility for which society had only the highest respect to endow upon him. A veteran enlisted into the military for the Vietnam War and a former, police officer, he was experienced in the matters of life. Although some people question his credibility, in that he had no college degree in social sciences, any independent study of the subject, nor any affiliation and empathy towards politics, he scoffed at those people, thinking them all as childish and himself as a righteous father He was confident in his superior maturity and wisdom after his paramount experiences in his life. He had only the need of his god, his family, and his work -- and all other things were merely silly things fabricated by society.
As the train neared, and he neared his escape for a slumber at his house, he surprisingly spotted from afar ten figures loitering on the train tracks the train headed. The ten figures were unequivocally like Odysseus' crew, who was lured in with the temptations of lust and luxury, and now they had put themselves in the way of harm. To the relief of Alent, he noticed that he could take a mere scenic route on a diverging train track that wouldn't alter his schedule by much, just before he would have hit the perceived, reckless teenagers. To his horror, he found that this second route wasn't so desolated as he had presumed. There was a boy sleeping on the tracks, apparently with the trust that his friends would pull him away should anything happen. His friends were as negligent as a CEO, who only cared for his or her own profits. Now there was no time for their heroics nor the simple pursuance of an implicit agreement. The climax had but two scenarios: Alent could allow the prescribed pathway to take its course, or he could turn the wheels and crash down upon the innocently sleeping boy but save ten happily playing boys. He could not decelerate the train in time, before hitting either of the two choices. Now at this apex of his life, he had found that he was foolish to have believed that he was above the trials of the philosopher or the discourses of the people on what is good or bad and right or wrong. His equations fell apart in an instant, and his reality was deflowered.
Evaluating Questions
1. What would you characterize your political position? (Liberal, Libertarian, Conservative, etc.)
2. Should Alent continue on his current train track, or should he turn the wheels to the diverging train track?
3. Justify your answer for the first question.
4. Evaluate fate vs. free will in this short story, and justify your answer.
5. Which train track should the support of the law?
6. Justify your answer for the fifth question.
7. Which train track would be the most desirable for the welfare of society? Which train track would not violate the freedom of Alent? Which train track would be the most virtuous of Alent? Justify your answers.
8. Should Alent base his decision of the train track on welfare, freedom, or virtue? Justify your answer.
9. How differently would society, if at all, change its impressions of Alent, depending on which train track he would have chosen? Justify your answer.
10. Who had the most moral desert for their predicament: the ten boys on the first train track or the one boy on the second train track?
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