Morality question

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AuthorTopic: Morality question
Infiltrator
Member # 1877
Profile #25
IRT Car wreck: I would ask X, and then shoot X if X wanted it.

IRT Pact: Regardless of who shot who, theres still the other gun left, so there is no problem killing yourself afterwards, but since I'm not into pacts and all that very much I'm not really sure what to answer.

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33111-CRUSADER-4849
Posts: 662 | Registered: Friday, September 13 2002 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 3310
Profile #26
Moral of the story: don't walk around carrying guns. It's dangerous and you don't have to make the "to shoot or not to shoot" decision all the time.

One more thing. Why on earth would you shoot yourself? If you don't want to see it, just close your eyes! Or run away! Or start singing very loud, so you won't hear the screams of pain coming from the burning wreck. Admire the night sky. Go pick some mushrooms from the nearby glade. You don't have to put a bullet throught your head.

It would be a rather good crime mystery, though. A burning car, with a corpse inside. Another body lying on the road, shot to death. All this in some barren, deserted place. Fascinating!

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ahhahaha i rule u droool
Posts: 756 | Registered: Monday, August 4 2003 07:00
Infiltrator
Member # 187
Profile #27
quote:
Originally written by Fear Uncertainty and Custer:

Suppose you have made a suicide pact with your best friend. You each have a gun to the other's head in a position which will reuslt in an instantly fatal shot. You each hesitate -- so instant mutual death is not possible.

(As for how you got there, assume that you both had your judgement incredibly impaired. Sub gender as necessary.)

You want to live. You do not know about whether he does or not, but you know he will shoot; do you shoot him or let him shoot you?

Simple. If I know he's going to shoot me, I do this:

"Alright. We'll do this on the count of three.

One.

Two.

*BANG*

Three."
Posts: 586 | Registered: Saturday, October 20 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #28
What if he has the exact same thought, but decides to do it on one? :P

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #29
"All right. We're going to do this—" BANG "—on three..."

—Alorael, who would probably shoot first whether or not it could be called self-defense and whether or not it would be discovered. Anyone who gets you into a suicide pact isn't that much of a friend.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #30
This is precisely why they should screen people before giving them a gun. Basic criminal background check -- psychiatric check. Alright buy your gun. This is more important than the type of firearm. It kind of makes me wonder what people are thinking. The only time I've handled a shotgun or rifle is if the person hunted deer or wanted to get rid of pests like skunks. Never felt a need to hunt myself.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
Profile #31
I'd shoot as soon as I possibly could. My reasons are thus, the least important given first and the most important last:

Consider the results for the other person if you don't shoot. Yes, it's possible he might not shoot, but you have no way of knowing that. I'm not going to make life-or-death decisions on groundless optimism. (The hesitation isn't a grounds for believing he won't do it. If I was going to kill somebody and had decided completely, I'd still hesitate momentarily.) So if he shoots, as he likely will, and you don't, you're dead and he's got a gun in his hands. If agents of the law are nearby, he's going to prison for quite a number of years. If they aren't there, it may still be on his conscience.

Doing nothin? What, and disappoint him? It's a pretty terrible way to go and my inaction would brand me deceitful in his eyes.

My conscience can take it. It's self-defence of a kind and as Alorael says, convincing me to get involved in a suicide pact is not a great act of friendship. Even if I can only justify myself through cheap sophistry, if I fill the gaps in my argument with bitterness I'll get by.

Most importantly, I want to live. There is someone with a gun to my head standing in the way of that. I am not going to stand there passively and let him end my life in a cheap livejournalish fashion. When you try to kill me, it becomes personal. If there's a policeman watching, so be it. I have no idea how I'd cope with prison but I'm not prepared to let anybody else but me choose whether I live or die.

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Voice of Reasonable Morality
Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Master
Member # 4614
Profile Homepage #32
I'd just freak out and my finger'd so shaky I counldn't control whether I end up shooting or not. There's no real "moral" decision.

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-ben4808

For those who love to spam:
CSM Forums
RIFQ
Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00
Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
Member # 919
Profile #33
First scenario - out of those choices I'd have to shoot the other person, for more or less the same reasons everyone else has come up with. In reality, though, I don't think I'd give up trying to save the other person unless I were harmed too badly to continue, even if I knew that it were impossible to save him/her.

Second scenario - I'm pretty sure I'd shoot, and no, those other variables don't change my decision. I don't think I'd be able to shoot, anyway, even if I decided to, and (see other responses for the rest).

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And though the musicians would die, the music would live on in the imaginations of all who heard it.
-The Last Pendragon

Polaris = joy.

In case of emergency, break glass.
Posts: 3351 | Registered: Saturday, April 6 2002 08:00
Shaper
Member # 3442
Profile Homepage #34
About the car crash - I'd let them know how I felt, if they didn't already. Then I'd do anything to get her out of the car. I'd even trade my soul with the devil for her to live. If there was absolutely no way of saving her, I'd try all the same. Then, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'd let her die, then kill myself. Life wouldn't be worth living without her, and I wouldn't want her to see me killing myself.

The suicide pact thing made me think. I'd definatly shoot. He's my best friend, and in order to make a suicide pact he'd wanna die. I wouldn't let the feds get in the way of that.

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"I am a living sign..."

Thus endeth this post.
Posts: 2864 | Registered: Monday, September 8 2003 07:00
Warrior
Member # 4973
Profile #35
How about shooting the cute furry animal that made you crash in the first place? :P

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There are three kinds of people in the world: those who think, those who think they think, and those who would rather die than think.
Posts: 104 | Registered: Thursday, September 16 2004 07:00
One Thousand Slimy Things
Member # 66
Profile #36
For the first scenario, I don't have to shoot her to ease her pain, I can just smack her cold with the gun. I feel the scenario lacks sense though.

For the second scenario, well, a good whapping might work there as well. "Now this is what we do, on the count of three..." *WHAP*

I feel that a good smack is what most people need.

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Bending, but not in the way you might imagine.
Posts: 995 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #37
I, for one, have no idea where or how hard to hit someone to knock them unconscious instead of just hurting them even more. It's also much easier psychologically to pull a trigger than to hit someone over the head with what amounts to a metal pipe.

—Alorael, who wouldn't be too surprised to find that Arctic does know where to hit people. Unconciousness has its uses in certain circumstances.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #38
quote:
Originally written by SupaNik:

Then, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'd let her die, then kill myself. Life wouldn't be worth living without her, and I wouldn't want her to see me killing myself.
Notice that he assumes that the person is a she.

Do I hear Dashboard Confessional playing in the background?

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人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
One Thousand Slimy Things
Member # 66
Profile #39
quote:
Originally written by Brief:

I, for one, have no idea where or how hard to hit someone to knock them unconscious instead of just hurting them even more. It's also much easier psychologically to pull a trigger than to hit someone over the head with what amounts to a metal pipe.

—Alorael, who wouldn't be too surprised to find that Arctic does know where to hit people. Unconciousness has its uses in certain circumstances.

In the head. Repeat if necessary. Still better than ending your life as a human torch. ^^

[ Monday, December 20, 2004 13:49: Message edited by: Tak-Tak-Attack ]

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Bending, but not in the way you might imagine.
Posts: 995 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
This Side Towards Enemy
Member # 3098
Profile #40
If they're of slight build you can wring their neck instead.

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Voice of Reasonable Morality
Posts: 961 | Registered: Thursday, June 12 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 27
Profile #41
If I was in a suicide pact with my best friend and we both hesitated to fire, my natural instincts of survival would probably kick in and pull the trigger for me.

If given time to think rationally, I would try to disarm and or use diplomacy to stop my friend.
Posts: 1233 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #42
How do you think you ended up in that situation, by thinking rationally? :P

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The Encyclopaedia Ermariana <-- Now a Wiki!
"Polaris leers down from the black vault, winking hideously like an insane watching eye which strives to convey some strange message, yet recalls nothing save that it once had a message to convey." --- HP Lovecraft.
"I single Aran out due to his nasty temperament, and his superior intellect." --- SupaNik
Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #43
On second thought, I would duck down and kick the friend in the balls/shin. And when the friend was down, I would kick him/her again a few times. Then we'd kiss and make up and everything would be hunki-dori.

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人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Warrior
Member # 3870
Profile Homepage #44
quote:
Originally written by Wilfred A. Spurts:

quote:
Originally written by SupaNik:

Then, I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'd let her die, then kill myself. Life wouldn't be worth living without her, and I wouldn't want her to see me killing myself.
Notice that he assumes that the person is a she.

Do I hear Dashboard Confessional playing in the background?

The premise for the situation was to assume the one stuck in the car was "the one you love the most out of everyone you know". It did not state anything about gender.

For many heterosexual males, said person would presumably be female.

[ Tuesday, December 21, 2004 01:29: Message edited by: Strawcab sith ssnuanworp ]

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"Toleration is not the opposite of intoleration, but is the counterfeit of it. Both are despotisms. The one assumes to itself the right of withholding liberty of conscience, and the other of granting it."
---Thomas Paine

Posts: 156 | Registered: Thursday, January 8 2004 08:00
Warrior
Member # 3159
Profile Homepage #45
Lighter, you can shoot the cute furry animal if you're going to eat it. If not, don't shoot. Remember the Native American morals. Only kill what you are going to eat, and pray that the Great Spirit will welcome said cute furry animal in the afterlife.
Posts: 111 | Registered: Monday, June 30 2003 07:00
One Thousand Slimy Things
Member # 66
Profile #46
quote:
Originally written by loserclassof06:

Lighter, you can shoot the cute furry animal if you're going to eat it. If not, don't shoot. Remember the Native American morals. Only kill what you are going to eat, and pray that the Great Spirit will welcome said cute furry animal in the afterlife.
Cute furry animals can have far worse fates in these parts than getting shot and eaten... ^_______________^

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Bending, but not in the way you might imagine.
Posts: 995 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #47
The Great Spirit does not want them back after Arctic is finished with them.

—Alorael, who would like to know whether it is okay to euthanize a friend without eating him or her. This could significantly change his answer.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 2775
Profile Homepage #48
Can you shoot the person who posted the dilemma?

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"I can't give you brains," said the Wizard of Oz to the Scarecrow, "but I can give you a diploma." - L. Frank Baum
Posts: 381 | Registered: Sunday, March 16 2003 08:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #49
This has been proposed many times now.

Yes, please do.

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人 た ち を 燃 え る た め に 俺 は か れ ら に 火 を 上 げ る か ら 死 ん だ
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00

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