A Streetcar, By Any Other Name

I'm not much of a fan of the philosophical construct commonly called "The Trolley Problem." Mainly because it fails at its primary task of getting people to understand how they make difficult choices. Instead it tends to divide people into those who think that difficult choices are real, in the sense that they're a natural part of the world around us, and those who think that they're contrived, in the sense that in a properly functioning world, there would be no need for difficult choices.

Which, when I think about it, actually is a valuable distinction to make, because it appears in so many facets of life. Whether there are actually solutions to the problems that people face, or only trade-offs, is perhaps a more important choice than it's given credit for, because it shapes so much of the way that people see the world.

I am a firm supporter of Team Trade-Offs. In the world as I understand it, everything has a price, the only question is which prices is one willing to pay. Some are easier for most people to stomach than others, and having an understanding of which ones those are for a particular person goes a long way into offering useful (and even actionable) insight into their behavior.

And so even though, when confronted with the actual Trolley Problem, I tend to say "throw the switch," I understand a certain shared worldview with the people who would say "allow the trolley to drive on." Because even though moral sentiments push us to make different choices, we still agree on the need, at least in this hypothetical instance, to actually make one or the other choice. But in the end, I realize that my belief in the reality of difficult choices is a matter of faith, like most other things that I might purport to "know." And so maybe it's just a matter of the way in which people gravitate towards those who share spirituality. There are worse reasons to pal around with people.