Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Absolute

"There are no absolutes!"

I looked at him, "What do you mean?" I could tell that this was going to spiral upward into another heated debate. Colleges shouldn't assign a Christian an Atheist roommate.

"I mean, it doesn't matter what you do, everything is relative."

"OK..." I paused for a moment. "You know our differences, but I'll try and put this in terms that you can understand."

"Go ahead!" He barked, rather aggressively.

"I'll start with an extreme example. Think of someone you care about, take your mother for example. What would you say if I went and killed her?"

He stared at me blankly for a minute. I knew where he would go next, "OK, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as no one gets hurt."

"OK, say I stole your computer, hijacked all your credit card information, and bought hundreds of dollars worth of stuff on your credit card. What would you do then? Would you say that that's 'wrong'?"

He faltered for a minute, and then said "No... just not very nice..."

"You wouldn't prosecute me?"

"I'm not saying that..."

"Well, the law is another form of an absolute."

"Yes, but you get in trouble if you break it and get caught. It's alright otherwise."

"OK, So it's alright to go 90mph down the highway?"

"Not if it's not safe. Going 90 down the highway during rush hour could very easily result in someone getting in an accident and getting injured."

"So what if it's a relatively empty highway? Say that there's a little bit of traffic, but not too crowded, would you still go 90 down it?"

"No, because a police car could be in the traffic."

"Exactly. You don't because of the fear of the absolute."

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