How important is the manner in which you die?

[Riddick]

Two options:

A) You get to live out an incredible fantasy life, whatever your fantasy is (repeat winning the world series and then taking over as CEO of Playboy and banging out every hot chick in the world for the next few decades, being a billionaire, becoming a All-Star player for your favorite pro team, anything and everything) BUT around the age of 65 you get captured by terrorists and mercilessly tortured for about week before being slowly beheaded. The torture involves everything from electric drills to electric shock, every kind of blade and hook, and leaves you limbless and emasculated, and ultimately headless. You do leave a good legacy though, at least as a good as any other extravagant billionaire (which is what I assume most people's fantasies are).

OR

B) You never fulfill any of your dreams, and never amount to anything. You do live a mediocre life however, marrying a below average looking wife who gets fat after the first pregnancy and the sex stops almost completely, except for further planned kids. You have only daughters, and four of them to boot. You have a tedious manual labor job but are eventually promoted to supervisor and get to do a little more office work, but you are constantly struggling with bills, only able to get in some small, mediocre vacations here and there, and will definitely need to rely on social security when you retire (assume its still there). BUT you live a life free of disease, illness, significant pain, and when you die in your mid nineties around your kids and grandkids and maybe a couple great grandkids you die peacefully in your sleep. You are then totally forgotten by the world.

[loyalguard]

For a me a week of torture and a painful death is an incalculably significant detractor from a lifetime of pleasure. I also could care less about my legacy since once I'm gone it doesn't really matter to me anymore.

As such, option B is my choice. If you have ever seen someone grow old and suffer from disease and disability I believe it would be clear to you that B is a much better option. And again, I don't really care if I am totally forgotten about by the world.

I have more on the topic but that is enough morbidity for me today. I'm going to go play with my kids now.

[Tennenbaum]

I've seen too many horror movies to know that I NEVER want to be tortured. I'd take option B.

[Lestat]

I personally don't care much about how I die. But you're first scenario requires a choice of *living* through a week of torture. No amount of fame and money would be worth that to me. PLUS... It would inhibit my enjoying life well before turning 65, knowing I was sure to face such a fate.

Of course, there's no guarantee of escaping such a fate for any of us. Cancer is a slow tortureous death as well as other things.

My gf is afraid of flying. She hates the thought of dying in a plane crash. To this end, I don't care if I die from a plane crash, heart attack, gunshot wound, etc. How I live is much more important than how I die.

[revots33]

[ QUOTE ]
You never fulfill any of your dreams, and never amount to anything.

[/ QUOTE ]

Option B. And assuming you are a good husband and good father to your 4 daughters, you have amounted to something. Fame doesn't interest me, and there are a lot of ways to amount to something without fame/fortune/Playboy bunnies/etc.

[madnak]

A A A, without question.

[Metric]

Option A would be far preferable for me (not necessarily winning sports games or playboy bunnies, but the power to accomplish whatever I want) assuming that knowledge of the end isn't held over my head for my entire life.

[Steve00007]

It depends. If I knew that I could be captured by terrorists around the age of 65 (assuming I lived to be that old), then I would spend years trying to figure out how to avoid such a fate. After all, I have billions of dollars and I'm famous, so I should be able figure something out. It's not like I can't have a lot of bodyguards or security when I reach my mid-60s. When I get close to 65, I also would just about always have a gun nearby just in case. I'd rather shoot myself than be captured alive.

If I don't know the future, then I prefer option B. A life free of disease, illness, or significant pain would be worth a lot. The rest of life B sucks, though. However, there are a lot of people in this world who would love to have option B.

Of course, I assume that the OP didn't intend for us to be able to change the part about torture and the beheading, so my choice would be option B.

[Dan.]

This poll is more a question of "would you want to live a great life knowing you'll die terribly, or live a not so great life and die peacefully?" The thread is just misnamed.

[speedfreek]

B of course [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I would like to die like my Father did, peacefully in his sleep, rather than die like his passengers, screaming!