SPOILERS FOR LAST NIGHT'S EPISODE OF TORCHWOOD: CHILDREN OF EARTH
Holy cow. What a terrific opportunity for a mindfuck. Here's the scenario: Scary-ass alien creatures demand we give them ten percent of our children for them to keep in an ambiguous state of existence for some kind of nefarious purpose. If we don't give them ten percent of the Earth's children, they wipe out life on the planet. They've been here before. They blackmailed us for children then. They can destroy us. You have 24 hours to deliver.
What do you do?
One of the politicians responsible for making the decision proposed they take the lowest performing children at the lowest performing schools and load them on buses for delivery to the aliens. The other politicians agreed this was indeed the best course of action.
That's like one of those moral dilemmas they give you in school. It hurts your brain to think about it.
Good job, Torchwood. Terrific setup. My brain still hurts.
Easy choice if it were me.
ReplyDelete1) Children are annoying anyway. They make noise during my movie, scream and make a scene in my grocery store, and sit behind me in restaurants, climb over the booth and stare at me.
2) If you don't give them 10% they're going to kill 100%.
I wouldn't give them the lowest performing at the lowest schools though. I'd dig deep and find the future Paris Hiltons and happily give them up.
Oh I forgot one of the conditions. I'll add it to the post.
ReplyDeleteThe series of Torchwood is some of the best TV ever, and makes you really sit back and realize how bland and sterilized the average show is.
ReplyDeleteIt don't think it was the lowest performing students, but *all* students at the lowest performing schools regardless of individual performance levels. Basically, poor people.
ReplyDeleteAnd I loved how Jack had to make the same choice as the government except on a smaller scale; Sacrifice 1% to save the other 99%* vs. sacrificing one kid to save millions.
*Quick and dirty estimate that children account for ~10% of the total population therefore 10% of that is 1% of the total.