"Here is a puzzle for you to consider," said Ishamel. "You are in a faraway land and find yourself in a strange city isolated from all others. You're immediately impressed by the people you find there. They're friendly, cheerful, healthy, prosperous, vigrous, peaceable, and well educated, and they tell you things have been this way for as long ans anyone can remember. Well, you're glad to break your journey nhere, and one family invites you to stay with them.
That night you sample their food at dinner and, finding it delicious but unfamiliar, ask them what it is, and they say, 'Oh, it's B meat, of course. That's all we eat.' This naturally puzzles you and you ask if they mean the meat of the little insects that gather honey. They laugh and take you to the window. 'There are some B's there,' they say, pointing to their neighbours in the next house.
'Good lord!' you explain in horror, 'you don't mean that you eat people!' And they look at you in a puzzled way and say, 'We eat B's.'
'How atrocious,' you reply. 'Are they your slaves then? Do you keep them penned up to keep them from running away?'
That night you sample their food at dinner and, finding it delicious but unfamiliar, ask them what it is, and they say, 'Oh, it's B meat, of course. That's all we eat.' This naturally puzzles you and you ask if they mean the meat of the little insects that gather honey. They laugh and take you to the window. 'There are some B's there,' they say, pointing to their neighbours in the next house.
'Good lord!' you explain in horror, 'you don't mean that you eat people!' And they look at you in a puzzled way and say, 'We eat B's.'
'How atrocious,' you reply. 'Are they your slaves then? Do you keep them penned up to keep them from running away?'
By now, you're hosts are beginning to think that you're a little weak in the head, and they explain that the B's would never think of running away, because their own food, the A's, live right across the street.
Eventually, you piece together the whole ghastly scheme. The A's are eaten by the B's and the B's are eaten by the C's and the C's are in turn eaten by the A's. There is no heirarchy among the food classes. The C's don't lord it over the B's just beacuse the B's are their food, because after all, they themselves are the food of the A's. It's all perfectly democratic and friendly. But of course it's all perfectly dreadful to you, and you ask them how they can stand to live in this lawless way. Once again, they look at you in bafflement. 'What do you mean, lawless?' they ask. 'We have a law, and we all follow it invariably. This is why we're friendly and cheerful and peaceable and all those other things you find so attractive in us. This law is the foundation of our success as a people and has been so from the beginning.'
Here at last is the puzzle. Without asking them, how can you discover what law it is they follow?"
Mind you, I'm not asking you to find out the law. I'm asking you to find out a way in order to find out the law...
Here are some things to go on:
1) They have a law, they follow it invariably, and because they follow it invariably, they have a highly successful society.
2) The penalty for breaking the law is death. In their history, only one such case has occured. It's records are made available publically in the library.
Eventually, you piece together the whole ghastly scheme. The A's are eaten by the B's and the B's are eaten by the C's and the C's are in turn eaten by the A's. There is no heirarchy among the food classes. The C's don't lord it over the B's just beacuse the B's are their food, because after all, they themselves are the food of the A's. It's all perfectly democratic and friendly. But of course it's all perfectly dreadful to you, and you ask them how they can stand to live in this lawless way. Once again, they look at you in bafflement. 'What do you mean, lawless?' they ask. 'We have a law, and we all follow it invariably. This is why we're friendly and cheerful and peaceable and all those other things you find so attractive in us. This law is the foundation of our success as a people and has been so from the beginning.'
Here at last is the puzzle. Without asking them, how can you discover what law it is they follow?"
Mind you, I'm not asking you to find out the law. I'm asking you to find out a way in order to find out the law...
Here are some things to go on:
1) They have a law, they follow it invariably, and because they follow it invariably, they have a highly successful society.
2) The penalty for breaking the law is death. In their history, only one such case has occured. It's records are made available publically in the library.
1 comment:
ummm..well you could check up in the library on how the law was broken..to discover wat the law is.
But that seems way too straightforward.
So wats the answer to this puzzle??
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