Is it worth it for eight people to save one person?
1,
That's the conundrum posed by Saving Private Ryan.
Similar in effect to this topic is another puzzle derived from the trolley paradox.
There are two forks on a railroad track, one is about to travel, no one is allowed to approach, the other is idle, and children are not restricted from approaching.
The train is approaching, and you, the conductor, notice that five children are playing on the upcoming track ahead, and only one child is playing on the other idle track.
If not diverted, five children will die.
If it is diverted, it will only cost one child to die.
This question has caused fierce controversy on the Internet, and both sides have their own opinions. However, in the end, most people accepted the conclusion that the train should not be diverted, even if five children were sacrificed, but the children who abide by the social rules must be protected.
Strictly speaking, this question does not belong to the trolley paradox, because its problem is not only about life itself, but more about the attitude toward rewards and punishments for obeying social rules.
Likewise, the eight and one person in Saving Private Ryan are also more than just lives.
They are the conflict between the will of the state and the life of the individual.
2,
In "Saving Private Ryan", the filmmakers praised the live shooting of the war at the beginning, and it was praised as a restoration of the real World War II. It was a 20-minute record of hell on earth. Soldiers rushed out one by one with guns. They were shot, fell into the water, drowned, and bombed. The sea was dyed red.
Man here is just a cog in a war.
Life and death depend on God.
From the very beginning, a cruel premise is put forward: on the battlefield, the fragility of life and the cruelty of reality.
Under this premise, the choice between life and death is cruel and difficult.
The lens turns.
The problem was further exacerbated.
A soldier named Ryan lost three of his older brothers. Unable to let his mother receive four death notices on the same day, the army commander ordered the formation of a squad to take Ryan out of the battlefield.
On the surface, this is the exchange of eight lives for one life.
Is it really that simple?
2,
Ryan is trapped in the depths of the battlefield, and to save him he must travel through enemy territory. This means that in order to save him alone, it will cost the lives of eight people.
When questioned, Commander-in-Chief Marshall took from the Bible Lincoln's letter to a heroic mother who had lost five sons on the battlefield, and read it aloud.
The Bible implies the sanctity of this action.
for life itself.
And President Lincoln's letter to the mother at the height of the country shows the essence of this life rescue on the other hand - this is a national action.
At that time, the United States was deeply involved in the European battlefield, with heavy casualties and domestic complaints. They need a representative who inspires and inspires soldiers and citizens, and calms people's emotions.
Ryan is this representative.
The state rescued him just because they needed to make a statement.
They value life.
Even in order to maintain this one life, they need to let eight other people lose their lives.
From that moment on, Ryan's life was no longer his own, but a symbol of the national will. The value of his life is attached to another level - the principle of the country.
Even if the principle of protecting life needs to be maintained by several other lives.
3.
There is a detail in the movie.
While searching for Ryan at a camp, they met a pilot who told them about it. Because a general was going to fly on their plane, the general's guards thickened the floor of the plane for the general's safety, but did not notify the pilots.
As a result, the plane was too heavy to fly, and eventually crashed, killing all 22 soldiers on board.
Here is another question.
One general's life is worth the life of twenty-two warriors...
Which is lighter and which is heavier?
Life itself is equal, but its added value makes it important.
In 1776, the American Declaration of Independence stated that "all men are created equal, and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Equality and freedom run through the core of Western culture.
There is a scene in the movie where Miller's team captures a German soldier in an abandoned radar position. Although the Germans killed one of their comrades, they chose to free the captives.
Western culture respects life.
Therefore, they will have a culture that exempts the death penalty and respects everyone's freedom and equal rights. It is precisely because of respect for each person's life that there is a moral paradox in the comparison of the number of lives behind.
But in fact.
Is life really equal in every situation?
The United States, which proclaimed the Declaration of Independence, took a long time to realize the legal equality of blacks and whites, men and women. In real life, racism and sexism still exist in every corner.
In any corner, grab anyone and ask him whether the life of the president or the life of ordinary passers-by is more important, and the answer is self-evident.
4.
Ryan is lucky.
He was chosen as the representative of the will of the country, which must have guaranteed his safety.
But neither can he.
As the rescued object, he himself is powerless to contend with the decision itself. He passively accepted the fact that he was about to be rescued from the battlefield, and he could not shirk the moral burden of a lifetime.
Even if the decision has nothing to do with him.
Just like on the way to find Ryan, Captain Miller said this sentence when he was resting, recalling how many comrades he had lost in battle, every time a brother died in battle, I told myself that this would save two or three. Four or ten lives, even a hundred. In the troops I commanded, a total of 94 comrades were killed, but I rescued ten times more, or even twenty times...
He also said that this Ryan had better be worthy of our saving, and he had better be able to practice medicine to save people when he got home, or invent longevity medicine or something.
At the end of the film, Ryan is rescued.
The squad sacrificed three people and completed the mission.
Captain Miller said to Ryan with his last strength, "earn, this."
Don't let it go.
Ryan has lived his life to realize this statement. Even in old age, standing in front of Captain Miller's grave, he is still asking himself whether he is a good person in this life.
Fives
Ryan accepts all this passively.
The same goes for the eight-member squad.
Even if they also feel that this action is extremely stupid and a "mistake". But they still had to carry out the operation of saving one person with eight people.
Because this is a state action.
They are powerless to contend, even if their interests will be sacrificed.
In fact, think carefully, how common such a situation is, no matter how noble, great, and positive the banner is. But it cannot change the behavior of sacrificing a part of the interests to achieve the interests of the majority.
Under collectivism, neither side has the right to contend.
For example, after the current president of the United States came to power, some groups whose interests were sacrificed, such as the refugee issue in Europe, and some families whose stability was maintained...
There is still something left to write.
This eight-to-one decision is actually the sacrifice of the individual in the face of a collective decision.
6.
At the end of the film, when Michelle died and Ryan cried, the voice-over sounded aloud from Marshall's letter to Ryan's mother, again quoting Lincoln's words to the heroic mother who lost five sons in the war, and emphasizing that these are freedoms And the honor of the families and warriors sacrificed by the country.
This again underscores the meaning of the action itself - national action.
And Ryan's life saving is a kind of national spiritual propaganda, expressing that they value life and appease the people and soldiers in wartime.
In this sense, Ryan's life has a heavy meaning.
This is an epic war movie, grand and grand. If other movies are a certain segment of life, then it is the whole life of a group of people. War, killing, fear, cowardice, idealism and family love are vividly visible under the mirror of war.
The paradox of life in the film-whether it is worth saving one person with eight people can be simplified into eight words in essence.
With the added value of state action, is one life more important than eight?
Yes or no, everyone already has the answer.
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