The Trolley Problem

In the upcoming days I have a few posts coming up about Lehigh Valley Transit trolleys when I came across a thing called "The Trolley Problem". Perhaps you have heard of it. I did not and it has little to do with trolleys. Rather it's one dealing with the study of the human mind and how it deals with situations.

Taken directly from Wikipedia-- "THE TROLLEY PROBLEM""There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them.

You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. Unfortunately, you notice that there is one person on the side track.


You have two options:(1) Do nothing, and the trolley kills the five people on the main track.
(2) Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.
     Which is the correct choice?"The 'Trolley Problem' is one anyone in a leadership position has to face when making a decision. There's simply no right choice that can be made for all. No matter what the situation is there will be winners and losers. A few practical examples-- National Healthcare, immigration, budget cuts, government regulations, education standards, government accommodating religious beliefs and even parents raising their children.

In "Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan," Mr. Spoke said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Problem is "the few" is a relative term. What's a few? If life were only as simple as that, eh?

It depends how the problem is framed and what kind of outcome one is hoping to achieve on what the answer shall be. For example-- A military commander in Afghanistan may have to face this dilemma. Should he sacrifice a number of his troops if 2 or 3 insurgents are firing on them embedded with a large number of innocent civilians? Should a governor or mayor facing a pension plan that is going broke ask more of taxpayers or drastically reduce pensions that retirees are dependant upon in their last years? These are just to name two.

The decision one would make can become even less clear if one of the retirees or the trapped soldiers is one's own relative.

"The Trolley Problem" places someone in a impossible situation where upon we may attempt to resolve it in another way by reframing the problem. One might be tempted to characterize the five tied to the tracks in such a way that it will justify ones final decision. Take for example the five people tied to the tracks. Are they strangers or relatives, the same race, male/female, from another country, old/young or healthy/disabled?

For me personally unless I can completely avoid being in such a situation I refuse to voluntarily place myself in such situations. All too often dictators, judges, political leaders, commanders and others are all too eager to run and place themselves in such places of power to make such decisions.

If the day ever comes that I am forced to deal with such a situation it won't be because I've deliberately put myself in such as position such as those.

So, what would I do?
There's always the possibility I could throw it half way and derail the whole damned trolley. At least it'd be worth taking a shot, eh?
     Is that a cop out? :-)