There's a graphic novel series by the name of Y: The Last Man. The premise of said novel: there is a virus ravaging the globe that only infects people possessing a Y chromosome. Eventually, every living male dies, and the world becomes consumed with pandemonium. There is but one man who is immune to the virus, and his life then becomes a struggle for survival.
My question is, what would you do if you were that one man? Or, if you find yourself to be a lady type, what would you do if you were the last woman?
There are a few options, but none that I found offered any completely positive outcome. Keep in mind that an assumption of the hypothetical is that a majority of the remaining people on the planet would be extremist and desperate. With that in mind, here are the options that I was able to conjure up:
1)
Turn yourself in. You could hand yourself over to the remaining women and subjugate yourself to being tested for possibly the rest of your life. The reasoning here is that your sacrifice could save humanity. Even if the people ruthlessly hunting you down wouldn't necessarily have your best interests in mind, their overall goal would be tantamount to your own: to save the human race.
2)
Start a colony. Another solution would be to live your life on the run, with the hope that eventually you may encounter people who would not have malicious intents for you. One thing of note is that it is very,
very hard to convince an extremist that they are wrong of something, and you would most likely have to live the rest of your life in seclusion. The caveat of starting a colony outside the gaze of your headhunters is as your colony grows, the harder it would be to keep it a secret. If your overall goal is to keep humanity alive, then at some point your settlement is going to grow in size to the point where it becomes noticeable. If this happens, conflict is likely to occur, and you'd be fooling yourself into thinking that you could have the resources to hold off the large numbers of those opposing your small colony.
3)
Suicide/Castration. Show everyone that they are wrong to do what they are doing in hunting you, but at the same time ensure the end of humanity.
What would I do? I don't think I would choose the third option as I don't feel as though I have the right to decide the fate of an entire race. While the majority of the population would be extremist, there would still be those out there who wouldn't agree with that point of view, and I feel it would be wrong to end their hopes for a better future. Overall, I just feel it would be too selfish. As for the second option, I feel the risk of suffering is too great. If your colony were discovered, the lives of many would now be in danger, rather than just your own. Because of this, I think I would go with the first option, and sacrifice myself in hopes that a cure could be found. My life is just one of billions, and if by volunteering myself to ensure that humanity could be preserved, I think that might be worth it in the end.
So what I really want to know is,
What would you do if you were in such a position?
Let me know what you think, but until next time,
Stay classy
