A 'would you rather?' dilemma for the world

Usually on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog I generally just feature daft blog posts about silly subjects. However, sometimes all the rubbishness in the world can make it hard to be silly, so I thought that this week I would feature a brief excerpt from one of my early books. The excerpt focuses on a 'would you rather?' dilemma and a conversation which sums up the pointlessness of violence.

The scene takes place on a distant alien planet, and refers to the troubles between two alien races, but the sentiments are true even if you live on Earth, rather than an alien planet.

“I’ve got a ‘would you rather?’ dilemma for you. Would you rather let yourself be full of hate and devote your entire life to nurturing that hate and letting it fester away inside you…” Eric paused for effect. “...or would you rather just party it up every night having loads of fun and just not bother with all that hate rubbish?”

“And this is the unbelievable part ... there are actually some people that choose the hate option! Like ... eh!? What a complete bunch of total idiots! Why would you want to devote your life to reducing the amount of happiness in other people’s lives, when you could devote your life to increasing the amount of happiness in your own life? Surely it’s better to be selfish than spiteful. Surely that’s just common sense.”

Eric's advice: "Just have loads of fun all the time."

“Seriously, hate can turn some people into a total complete idiot with no common sense at all whatsoever. It totally annoys me, people like that. You just feel like going up to them and giving them a shake and saying, ‘Here, man! What are you doing!? You’ve backed the wrong option, you fool! You were obviously meant to pick the other choice. The ‘have loads of fun’ option. That was the one to go for. Not the ‘hate’ option.’ But some people are just idiots and they wouldn’t listen.”

The excerpt has been edited to remove spoilers, but the basic point remains intact. Why would you want to reduce the amount of happiness in other people's lives when you could spend your time increasing the amount of happiness in your own life?  Surely that's just common sense. Sadly, sometimes the world needs a bit more common sense.

You can find a selection of Christmas themed 'would you rather?' dilemmas below:
Santa themed 'would you rather?' dilemmas