Esteemed neighbors, emissaries, ambassadors, and dignitaries,

I write to you today not only as a statesman but as a scientist.

We in the city of Omelas have been exceedingly lucky in recent years. The wars, diseases, and financial instability that have rocked the world have so far passed us by. Partly that’s been due to prudent precautions and smart public investments, but it’s also true that our fine city benefits in unique ways from ancient, dearly-held customs.

As we watched these troubles afflict our neighbors, we sought to channel our prosperity into research that has the potential to benefit the entire world. We established centers to advance medicine, social policy, and more. I, myself, had the honor of chairing the Institute for the Study of Omelan Psychoenergetic Physics (ISOPP). It is in that capacity that I bring you good news.

We’ve always known the tranquility and collective happiness we Omelans enjoy are dependent on our maintenance of a tradition some consider objectionable: the solitary suffering child (SSC). We do not hide this fact; it would be a losing battle, as those who leave are quick to tell the tale, often in lurid terms. Instead, the Institute has sought to understand this phenomenon, to make sense of how it works, and why, and what implications it has for our larger model of the universe.

It may surprise you, esteemed neighbors, to hear that some in Omelas do not believe in the literal power of the SSC. Instead, they argue that the SSC is a social compact we have made as a community, a singular sin that binds us together, creating the sense of shared destiny required for a collective to thrive. Some radicals even claim the SSC is mere superstition, that nothing bad would happen to Omelas if it were freed. Thankfully, we now have hard evidence to settle these debates.

Using innovative satellite instrumentation, the ISOPP team has detected a psychoenergetic field that has a calming effect on cortisol levels, reducing stress and aggression among the populace while boosting focus and productivity. Incredibly, the field also dampens seismic and climatic instability and provides additional protection from cosmic radiation that has been linked to cancer. The full effects of what we have dubbed the psychoenergetic calming field (PCF) are still being assessed.

Neighbors, I do not share this to boast of our good fortune. I am not writing to lord these findings over all those who have doubted. I beg you: listen, there is more.

ISOPP researchers conducted extensive experiments to determine the boundaries of the PCF. Fantastically, they found that its limits are not fixed. Instead, the PCF covers the entire Omelas polity however that is construed. It shifts to encompass all those who think of themselves as Omelan, who believe themselves to be within the city limits, and—crucially—who know of and accept the existence of the SSC.

Attached are a trio of peer-reviewed papers we believe conclusively settle this matter as scientific fact. As you no doubt realize, these have dramatic implications for our understanding of both the physical and social sciences. Communities, it seems, are defined not by borders, governments, races, or creeds, but by shared imaginaries and experiences that generate real psychoenergetic forces.

The scholarly exploration of these findings will no doubt take decades. However, we need not wait to act on them.

Yesterday, the Omelan People’s Assembly voted near-unanimously to make a proposal to our neighboring jurisdictions. Omelas will, through legal writ and civic ritual, annex any city, state, or nation that wishes to become a member of the new Omelan Union (OU). In doing so you will gain access to our world-class healthcare and educational systems, our generous social safety net, our dutiful public safety administration, our clean and efficient transportation networks, our lively festival culture, and our top-tier professional and amateur sports teams—as well as the blessing of the SSC. We’ve already tested this offer with a select pilot group, and we’ve seen the PCF extend in a matter of days.

I implore you: join us! Bring this matter to an urgent vote in your legislatures. Imagine the dramatic reductions in crime, violence, poverty, sickness, and division. Imagine finally making progress on intractable socioeconomic problems. Imagine getting to opt-in to paradise.

We won’t ask you to give up your cultural distinctiveness; we merely ask to add it to our own. We won’t ask you to give up your sovereignty, for everyone in Omelas is a kind of sovereign. Over time the member states of the OU will sign memorandums of understanding regarding free trade, freedom of movement, and mutual defense—though I sorely doubt defense will be necessary. We’ll establish a common currency, align our policies, and eventually even dissolve our borders. None of this needs to be an onerous or contentious process. We are an agreeable people.

Joining the OU will also mean participating in Omelan traditions. You will get to attend the Festival of Summer, for instance, partaking in its feasts and marching in its processions. Your children will run naked in the races and games on the Green Fields. You will bring your goods to share at our Farmers’ Market. You may even join in on our occasional orgies. And you will be party to maintaining the confinement and immiseration of the solitary suffering child.

Let me be clear: No individual will be forced to violate their conscience. As a condition of joining the OU, we ask that all new member states give anyone who objects to the Omelan way of life the right to peacefully expatriate. Among your citizenry may be native Omelans who have chosen to leave our fair city; if they so choose, they should be free to walk away again.

That said, there is really no need. We won’t be expanding the SSC program, merely the scope of the polity it covers. There will still just be the one child, which is already down in its dirty little hole. If you join, no new harm will be done (quite the opposite, we hope!), and if you don’t, it won’t make a whit of difference to the SSC.

You might fairly ask, “What does Omelas get out of this?” I won’t feed you a line about simply wanting to do a good deed, sharing our riches out of the kindness of our hearts—though that is part of it. Truthfully, we are eager to expand our borders; our access to land, natural resources, technology, and markets; our opportunities for trade, tourism, and cultural exchange; and our tax base. We’ve always been content with our beautiful little city, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have ambitions, that we don’t aspire, as all nations surely do, to one day be great and vast.

We also have more philosophical reasons. As a liberally educated people, many Omelans accept the existence of the SSC on the basis of a utilitarian calculus: It is acceptable to allow one child—a disgusting wretch and an idiot, if we’re being honest—to suffer in order to ensure the happiness of our fifty thousand citizens. If that is good, then surely it must be even better for the child to suffer for the sake of a hundred thousand citizens, or a million, or a hundred million. The ratios speak for themselves.

This is what’s so exciting about the possibility of expanding the Omelan franchise. Imagine one billion Omelans! One billion content, healthy, flourishing individuals, working toward the betterment of all humankind. Imagine what could be accomplished—scientifically, artistically, economically, politically.

Imagine if the whole world could be Omelan. It would be the end of war, of pandemics, of terrorism and strife. It would be the end of human rights violations and injustice (mostly). Imagine wrapping the protective blanket of the PCF around the entire planet, warding off asteroid impacts and solar flares. Imagine an Omelan space program, carrying our great civilization to other worlds.

Esteemed neighbors, a better future for humanity is within reach. Do not walk away from this historic opportunity. Join the OU—today!

If you decide instead to turn down our generous offer, we won’t begrudge you. However, we cannot promise that your lives will stay the same. If the world decides to go our way, there may be little room for those who prefer to shun Omelan values. You may be forced to move, to congregate with other troubled souls. We will find a piece of land, a reservation where you can live your own way. It may be lonely for you, and difficult, without the help of the international community, without access to the global economy, sullied as it will all be by our supposedly objectionable utopia. You may find yourselves in a cramped place, living in squalor, with never a kind word said to you by the whole of the world. So be it. We accept that your suffering may be necessary for the good of all. We have made such calculations before.

Come one, come all, to the city, the country, the continent—nay, the planet of Omelas! Our shining gates are open.

Yours, warmly and eagerly,

Holum P. Bardo,

Prime Minister