Le Guin’s protagonist “George Orr” dreams of altering the reality of overpopulation when insisted in the second due to Haber, which puts the human race at almost instinct due to plague. Haber is a researcher in the discipline of sleep, along with an ambitious physiatrist, and seeks to utilize the dreaming power of George Orr in changing the planet while ending up harming himself and the planet. Orr’s dream solves the problem of overpopulation, which ends up reducing the welfare of the collective human race as a consequence of the plague.
The moral and social consequence of the dream solution of eliminating overpopulation is in the form of losing lives in high numbers due to the plague, which almost reduces the population to levels close to complete extinction. Haber convinces Orr with the argument, “You know that back in the eighteenth century, Malthus was pressing the panic button about population” (Le Guin, 1971, p. 51). However, the social consequence of the dream is in the form of a lack of human resources to sustain communal life and morally depriving significant populations of the right to ‘life.’ Haber is satisfied with the outcome because his personality and belief system follow a utilitarian approach that insists on increasing the well-being of most people in an optimum manner. Orr’s personality holds Taoist philosophy as central to existence, where internal peace is the product of living in harmony, which does not supplement the consequences of the second dream. The presence of a lawyer in the room guided Haber to manipulate Err tactfully, “he had to put it all in abstract terms, instead of just telling Orr what to dream” (Le Guin, 1971, p. 52).
Orr’s dissatisfaction is reflective of the ‘lack of harmony’ in the world, while Haber’s obsession with himself at the end explains the direction of human desires in a positivist manner.
Works Cited
Le Guin, Ursula K. “The Lathe of Heaven. 1971; rpt.” NY: Avon (1973).
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