The troops can actually take indimidating actions beyond their presence. They could, eg., be ordered to search everyone who is waiting in line for weapons and arrest anyone who objects.
I like "gamer brain", I get the feeling you're referring to the same thing I am when I say it's rejecting utilitarianism; but the depiction of Omelas isn't so much as holding a philosophical position as a mindset. "Gamer brain": to defeat suffering we have the system that requires 1 child suffering.
That's definitely wrong. The people who walk away aren't doing something different with the sacrifices made for them, they're rejecting them completely.
It's a more intelligent story if it exists to attack Lockian thinking than if it exists to attack utilitarian thinking so maybe I'm being uncharitable when I prefer the latter reading. But it does seem arbitrary to say that's the specific point we're supposed to mistrust the narrator on.
They should have given that the whole death note treatment, split the dialogue over a dozen panels of the anime girls saying that to each other and eating chocolate.
It's like, would you put hundreds children chosen at random into the hole, or this one specific child but you have to meet him and look at his face and publicly take responsibility for the decision?
Hang on, isn't the story arguing for the imposition of suffering for the greater good? Those who walk away are surely making the decision to cause greater suffering.
It's about whether the greater good is utilitarian or deontological.
