Who would you take a bullet for?

[Go_Blue88]

this is a dumb hypothetical question. you're asking people to answer this while they're hanging out behind their computer screens.

even some people who would supposedly obviously take a bullet for their spouses might not do so the moment before their death.

it's really easy to SAY you'll die for something or someone, but considering most ppl are terrified of death, who knows if they actually would. hence, the stupid hypothetical question.

[gumpzilla]

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that would depress me very much. I think I would die for 10 random strangers, although I know people who would do it for 2.

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What exactly is the Mother Teresa lifestyle they have adopted? How are they pursuing their clearly singular humanitarian vision, since they have such an uncommon love for Man?

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Dedicating their life to palliative care research.

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Are they saving a lot of lives that way? It seems to me they could just go have themselves euthanized and donate organs and probably save 3-4 lives that way. Also, if you buying a plasma TV is on par with saving 10 Africans, isn't it horrendously selfish of you to get yourself killed to save 10 strangers when over the course of your life you could expect to save ~1000 with your purchases?

Essentially, my point is that this is a ridiculous question to be asking, because it's very easy to wax noble on it when, as phrased, it's very unlikely to ever be a question that we have to deal with. I think the actions of people who claim to be so overly altruistic generally reveal that what they state they think does not mesh with what they do.

I also think that a lot of people might try and perform heroic acts to save a relatively low number of lives if death is substantially likely but not guaranteed.

[mikech]

this thread is really dumb. it reminds me of the discussion after the asian tsunami about whether you'd give a limb (or your life, etc) in exchange for saving the lives of the tsunami victims. ppl who say yes are probly lying, and if they're not lying then they should be devoting much more of their actual time/effort/money to substantive humanitarian work.

[ahnuld]

ok, mods lock then. The intent was to get a discussion going on amazing people who you feel will soon go on to do great things, so maybe instead of going about that in a roundabout way I should have just posted that as everyone got sidetracked on the idea that I took for granted, aka self sacrifice for the greater good.

[Yeti]

One for me.

Anyway, the 'would you give your life to save a million random people' thread was good. It basically involved daryn arguing with everyone. Dig it out.

Locking.

[daryn]

haha ahnuld i guess you'd be really shocked by my answers to those hypothetical "how many people would you sacrifice yourself to save" questions. actually, i could swear i answered this one in OOT and someone was definitely shocked by it. was it you?

anyway, i wouldn't sacrifice myself to save 100 million people. any number above that and it starts getting interesting. i might have to do some calculations to see how likely it is that one of my closest family members eats it.

nice, i got in before the lock. someone dig that old thread up!

ED: Not in before lock, but I can still edit!!! I think the way this thread was posed led to a relatively crappy discussion. Having said that, I think a thread about who you care about in life enough to risk your life for might have a bit more potential.