strawberry test

A video popped up on my YT recommendations referring to a Strawberry Test. Some quick googling suggests it’s a series of questions from the Kokology: the Game of Self-Discovery. I don’t have the book, but the questions are reported to be:

1. You’re on a walk and you spot a field of strawberries. You’re hungry and only a fence stands between you and the berries. How high is the fence?
2. You go into the field and start to steal the berries. How many do you eat?
3. Suddenly the farmer appears and starts yelling. What do you say in your defence?
4. After the situation is over, how did the berries taste and how did you feel about stealing them?

my answers to the theoritical question

You’re on a walk and you spot a field of strawberries. You’re hungry and only a fence stands between you and the berries. How high is the fence?

The fence height is immaterial to my actions. I might be interested in the rationale behind a very low or very high wall.

You go into the field and start to steal the berries. How many do you eat?

I do not go into the field; it is private property.

Suddenly the farmer appears and starts yelling. What do you say in your defence?

The farmer has no beef with me because I did not enter his field. If he were present I might ask some questions about the crop, the wall, his experience, etc.

After the situation is over, how did the berries taste and how did you feel about stealing them?

I might ask for one to taste or offer to buy some. In either case I would be pleased with the market transaction.

thoughts

Maybe the test isn’t about ethics, but rather an attempt to elicit an emotional reaction by forcing someone to rationalize an action they did not commit. Like the Voight-Comp test in Blade Runner, or someone shit testing a relatiionship.¹ If so, I hate it.

actual situations

True stories.

pears on the ground

Neighbor fails to trim his pear tree so limbs stay on his side of the fence. A pear on my side ripened and fell on the ground on my propoerty. I picked it up and ate it. .

pears on the limb

Same scenario, but the ripe pear on my side of the fence has not yet fallen. I used kitchen shears to cut the stem and harvest the pear to eat. I used the shears to avoid any possible pulling damage on the tree.

oranges beside the house

On a walk. An orange tree with ripe oranges is planted by the house. No fence, but I would have to step onto their lawn to harvest an orange. I did not enter.

persimmons blocking the sidewalk

On a walk. No fence. The persimmon tree was so close to the sidewalk and so overgrown that the limbs and ripe fruit were blocking the path of pedestrians on the sidewalk. I harvested several and ate them. One might make a (admittedly far-fetched) case that harvesting the fruit was a public service since it fractionally reduced sidewalk blockage.

backyard chickens

I had backyard chickens. While they stayed confined im my backyard their post-egglaying celebration noises did not. I regularly gave fresh eggs to neighbors within earshot of the hens.

my pomegranate tree

I bought a house which had a pomegranate tree planted close to the fenceline. I trimmed the limbs back from crossing the fenceline, but close enough the neighbor could reach over and grab one if he wanted.

theoretical situations

life or death strawberries

Let’s assume the strawberries in the original scenario are potentially life-saving. Maybe I (or someone else) is near death from starvation, or strawberries are a treatment for heart attack, who knows. Go with me on this. I would:

1. look around for any farmer or other person with control over the field.
2. if none were present, I would call out my intentions: “I am about to enter this property to retrieve a strawberry because [insert brief statement of the emergency].”
3. enter, harvest, and leave while doing minimal damage
4. if there was a way to document what I’d done I would do so
5. accept any punishment that followed, while hoping the extenuating circumstances would result in dismissal or at least leniency

1. actual example: “Why did you cheat on me in my dream?” Ummm, that’s literally all in your head, you fscking loon. ↩