by Mord Maman
As far as exam questions go this one had to be the toughest, students reaching the last question were faced with actually having to think, about themselves, and other people!
After the picture was retweeted several thousand times the Professor who posed the question took responsibility for this head scratcher.
Professor Dylan Selterman, who has been asking this question since 2008 says that this points to a concept called the “Tragedy of the Commons”
Which he frames as “a dilemma between doing what’s good for you as an individual versus doing what’s best for the group”. Since he has been asking this question only one group has received the extra points!
There is a story in the Talmud of a person who was clearing stones from his own property into the public domain. Along came a pious person who saw this and exclaimed “Why are you clearing stones from a place that isn’t yours into a place that is yours?” The offender scoffed at the pious man and his cryptic comment. Ultimately the man ended up selling his field and was walking through the public domain and tripped over those very stones he had cleared from his field, and then he understood the words of the pious man who said “Why are you removing rocks from a place that isn’t yours to a place that is yours”
We don’t clear rocks from our property that often but we can relate to this on various levels. From litter, to parking your car, replacing your trolley in the supermarket, or even answering a question on an exam. Do we exploit the commons for our own profit at the expense of society or not.
Sitting in that exam there were two options, pick 6 points just in case, because you won’t be the person missing out, or do you take one for the team. The ideal solution would be for everyone to get two points, the track record of this experiment shows that people may agree with that as long as they get the 6!
In an age where people focus on their rights as opposed to their obligations this is food for thought. What would you do?
It comes down to understanding ones place in the grand scheme of things. Ultimately all we have are the resources we share with one another. When we focus on our obligations to God, to our neighbour and to the world around us then there may be hope for the commons.
