{"id":1644,"date":"2019-11-10T19:02:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T00:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2019-11-10T19:02:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T00:02:22","slug":"do-the-ends-justify-the-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/ldst1010304f2019\/2019\/11\/10\/do-the-ends-justify-the-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the Ends Justify the Means?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I read both of these short stories, I initially didn\u2019t see the connection to leadership. Both had twist endings where the happy reality of their lives is only maintained by an underlying evil – in the case of \u201cThe Lottery\u201d an annual randomized stoning and in the case of \u201cThe Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas\u201d. Both were sad and forced the reader to confront the lengths humans are willing to go to in order to maintain the status quo. But I still wasn\u2019t sure how leadership played into things.<\/span><\/p>\n

Then I thought about the concept of sacrificing a \u201clesser evil\u201d for a greater good. A common concept in leadership, particularly when thinking about war casualties, it\u2019s easy enough to think about and accept in the abstract. The life of a couple hundred civilians to preserve order and prevent thousands more from dying. But when you\u2019re confronted with examples like in these stories, especially of the child in Omelas, the lesser evils get faces. It makes me question if the ends really do justify the means and why we have become so desensitized to certain practices like the characters in the stories do. It also raises the question of what we can do when we\u2019re put in situations that are so ingrained in our society and feel so much larger than us – maybe all we can do is walk away like some chose to do from Omelas. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I read both of these short stories, I initially didn\u2019t see the connection to leadership. Both had twist endings where the happy reality of…<\/p>\n

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