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Toby Rogers's avatar

One of the giveaways that The Trolley Problem is actually about something else is the bourgeoise contempt for workers that runs throughout the scenario.

Presumably there is a conductor on the trolley. But this person is never mentioned and just assumed to be incompetent.

And then what, there is this very important switch that is just sitting there unattended for the public to switch the tracks whenever they want? That makes no sense.

Finally, the workers on the track are also assumed to be deaf and incompetent. If you work on train tracks every day the #1 thing you are looking out for is oncoming trains. But no, they are completely helpless without the Harvard managerial class coming in to save them!

The more I think about The Trolley Problem the madder I get.

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Toby Rogers's avatar

I get that my critique in the first section will displease many students of philosophy. They may point out that The Trolley Problem is just a hypothetical, no one is supposed to actually pull that lever. They may further argue that the binary choice necessarily focuses our attention on the moral issues involved. The claim I am making is straightforward. The philosophy professor believes that s/he is getting students to think critically about ethics and morality via this thought experiment — perhaps in ways that lead people to question utilitarianism and seek out other alternatives (later in the course). What I am saying is that the practical effect of this pedagogical approach is very different — it trains the elites to play God. "It creates certain neurological pathways" as cognitive linguist George Lakoff would say. Furthermore, The Trolley Problem is not just a hypothetical example. We are in the midst of a stochastic genocide. Many of these students really do go on to decide who lives and who dies in our society.

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