"There is a child, only one child, who has been removed from all human company and kept in a tiny, windowless, cellar-like space.
The child is filthy and malnourished, stunted, and fearful.
It, the pronoun Le Guin uses, is given a pitiful meal often enough to keep it alive, but receives no care: the rule is that no one is allowed even to speak a kind word to it."
That's Ursula Le Guin's short story, "Those Who Walk Away From Omelas," and it's one of the reasons South African social entrepreneur Desiree Shaprio decided to leave her "boundless and generous contentment" and go into the "darkness" of Omelas to help a child in need, she writes at the Atlantic.
"The decision to commit yourself to doing something about this child is an intensely personal one," she writes.
"But as I spoke to other social entrepreneursfellow McNulty Prize laureates Bill Bynum, R'jane Woodroffe, Srikumar Misra, and Lana Abu-Hijlehabout their journeys, four common themes emerged," she writes.
"Values: There is no kings, there is no stock market, there is no atomic bomb or army.
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