It is purely theoretical and, thankfully, no one will ever have to make this decision. But, I was wondering if a group of aliens from space or one of the many "gods" people seem to believe are out there came to you in real life and told you we/he/she/it feel there are way to many humans on your planet and we intend to wipe 50% of the from the face of the earth. But, we/he/she/it does not know who deserves to live and who deserves to die. So, you have been chosen to decide.
Latest stats say there are approximately 7.125 billion people on this planet. That would mean you would have to decide which 3.5625 billion people who were going to die. How would you decide? Who would you decide on? What would be the criteria? On what basis would you decide how to select over three and one half billion people who would not see tomorrow alive?
Do you do it on personal bias and hatred? Do you take the easy way out and just name the few countries with the highest populations? How would you decide who dies and who lives?
What if you had twenty-four hours to choose? What if you had one hour? What about ten minutes? Or you have to say now?
Do you try to protect your friends, family and those who are most like yourself? Do you kill off all the old and infirm? What about all the children who are not perfectly "normal"? Do you give everyone an IQ test and kill off the half who score the lowest? What about a physical fitness test and kill of the half who score lowest on that? Do you include yourself in the criteria?
Three and a half billion people. That is an awful lot of people. Honestly, I could only come up with maybe a hundred thousand who would be easy,. That is a drop in the bucket to three and a half billion.
Maybe you tell them to just leave us all alone or wipe us all out that you are not going to choose who lives and who dies and put it back in their hands?
Think about it for a while. No matter how many things you think you hate about this world or who you think you hate for whatever reason that is three and a half billion people. Real, live, people with minds and bodies. People who love, hate, have dreams for tomorrow.
Then, if you can't come up with an answer. Ask yourself this, "If I can't come up with a list of people I hate enough to mark for death then how many of them do I really hate"? Like I said I could come up with around maybe 100K with no problems. I could think of a couple of other categories I'd have no problem with getting rid of.
I'm quite happy it is only a theoretical question. I'm glad I'll never have the power to make those kind of decisions. But there are people who have that power and it follows them around every day. Those are the people in control of all the nuclear weapons on our planet. Think about that for a while.
Then, maybe, think about that at the polling place. Who would you trust to have that kind of power at their fingertips? Think voting is not important? Well, I think it is important to have a say who has their finger on that button. Maybe the most important thing in the world.
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