Broken Down Trolley Problems
I was thinking about these trolley problems recently. When forced to choose between two horrible things, which would you choose? My curious thoughtful response to this is why do we have to do horrible things? Have you considered that you may be wrong? Maybe it’s not either this or that. Maybe the answer is more complex and uncertain. Maybe the problem is that the trolley is broken.
The popular thought experiment simplifies ethical problems to a binary choice. By restricting our thought to only two options we are freed from having to address uncertain realities. This restriction steps down the aperture on the lens we have on the question to a point where we are blinded to any of the factors that led to the problem.
While this freedom from thinking feels good in the moment, it is only intoxication. It’s not sustainable. It’s a drug. Speaking of drugs, can we mandate vaccination if a virus puts public safety at risk? It’s not a simple question. The risks of pandemic virus spread is very real and experienced. And the predatory actions of the pharmaceutical industrial complex are well documented and poorly litigated.
The answer is, it depends. How dangerous is the virus? How risky is the vaccine? Who do you come into contact with every day? It becomes immediately apparent that these questions will only result in no-win decisions between two less than desirable outcomes with no right answers. It hurts our heads head to think about these dense ideas. And, the best part is we are absolutely capable of handling uncertain realities, it just takes practice.
Complex ethical questions are a consequence of our self-awareness and self-expression. And, in the pursuit of simplicity we dismiss the gifts we’ve been giving to process complex questions with no right answers. As soon as we see this for what it is, the trolley problem breaks down as nothing more than a thought exercise in reductionism. Real solutions are born out of gaining comfort with uncertainty. Do one thing a day that scares you. Especially if that one thing is being bored. Be cool with it, and don’t be a dick.
P.S. As you may suspect, there must be some yes/no ethics questions. And you are right. There are a few questions that can be satisfied with binary certainty. Here’s one. Is it ok to hurt someone who scares you? No. That answer is certain.