02sep08philosophy
The Chocolate Dilemma
Suppose you are in a remote village full of extremely poor people where children have not heard of such a thing called chocolate. My question is:
Is it right to offer chocolates to the children of the village?
The question may look extremely straightforward but it is not.
What’s good about giving the chocolate
Of course, the children are going to relish the chocolate – all children do. You’ll probably make their day!
What’s bad about giving the chocolate
Think about it, the happiness is short lived. Once the chocolate is over, dissatisfaction will set in. By giving them the chocolate, you have introduced one more desirable thing in their lives that they cannot afford to buy. You’ll probably make their condition worse!
Of course I am making certain assumptions about the maturity levels of the children. Maybe they are mature enough to live with the dissatisfaction. As kids we all had things we wanted but could not buy – like a Sony Playstation. But we did not spend our days and nights thinking about it. The dissatisfaction was short lived.
Probably these kids would stop thinking about chocolates pretty soon. They won’t be dissatisfied for very long. The pleasure of eating one will outweigh the short amount of dissatisfaction thereafter.
But well, maybe they are not that mature! Maybe they WILL probably long for a chocolate.
What do YOU think? Is it right to give chocolates to these children?
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Anorak says...
Too much chocolate is not good for you anyway. However, I presume you are using chocolate only as an analogy. A more pertinent question would be, ‘Do these children WANT a chocolate?’
1. Some people will create the demand for the chocolate anyway (for free) and will make sure that they supply for it in (not for free obviously).
2. There will be others who will be cynical and sort of think, ‘Well, what’s the point? The pleasure of eating the chocolate is going to be short lived anyway.’
3. And then there will be very few who will actually help the children get to a position where they are able to buy a chocolate for themselves if so they wish.
I will like to think that I belong to the third category BUT in all its likelihood, I probably belong to the second.
Julie says...
You have the chocolate. Share it.
Garima says...
I read somewhere that people tend to unduly sympathise with people with handicaps… to the point of irritation. Probably, the same is true for people less fortunate than us. The human spirit is something one can’t afford to underestimate, nor people’s strength. So, may be, just may be, the poor folk are happier than us, chocolate affording people, more content in their struggles and more rested in their sleep.
The chocolate thing is like my boss saying that he wants to give me a little of his chateaux margaux but won’t do it ’cause I can’t afford it. I wouldn’t care about that… I would want a sip anyway! Poorly constructed, but an example nonetheless.
and though the child might mourn the impossibility of further acquisitions of chocolate, wont that one moment be magical when he first tasted chocolate and is it not possible that it will etch a fond memory in his mind?
I don’t think we can ever know how it will all turn out.
If God showers his grace on us once and then never again, is that a reason for him to take away that one time too? May be there’s no God and all, but I just meant it as an example. If they are leading terrible lives, be a part of the little mercies that come along, no matter how hard the way. If their lives are not as terrible as we think they are, well, nothing wrong with a little chocolate to it, is it?
Tejas says...
The way I look at it is a person locked inside one room for his entire life will not have any dissatisfaction as long as he/she does not know there is an outside.
Personally, I’d think it would be evil to not let this person out into the world and enjoy all its materialisitc pleasures, after all thats what life on earth is about.
And dont listen to all those monks who say that life is about spiritual satisfaction. If that is true there’d be no point of being born, and we can all just live on as spirits.
(I think I’m high now and need to get some sleep
)