Jim and the Indians

In the wilds of South America, Jim is caught in a dilemma. The unsavoury police captain (immortalized in celluloid cliché) has caught some Indios and intends to shoot them all as guerrillas, but he will give Jim the opportunity to save their lives if and only if Jim chooses one of the captives and shoots him dead. What should Jim do? 

We are meant to see this situation as a conflict. He feels compelled to act in order to save the lives of 19 people, but the price is for him to murder one innocent person. Some people might see this as a reasonable proposition, a simple matter of numbers, but others will feel the horror that Jim might feel if he had to pull the trigger and murder that innocent person. 

Should Jim surrender to the force and necessity of the situation or should he preserve his personal integrity – his sense of himself as a good guy who doesn’t do things like that – and watch as the captain shoots all 20 Indians?

Steve Jobbs' lonely country road

Well, this is your first problem. Imagine that this is the situation that the interviewer presents to you. What are you going to say when she asks you, 'What should Jim do?' 

We'll talk about this in a day or two. That will give you a chance to write down your own responses. Think what that basically might be and how you might develop or justify your opinion when challenged.

The photo has nothing and everything to do with the case. What is more important than struggling to become the person you feel you really are? That was what philosophy was all about in the early days.