Would you sacrifice yourself?

zegh8578

zegh8578

Keeper of the trout
Orderite
Be honest now. Would you promptly give your life, knowing it is your life you give?
Personally, I simply do not know. Maybe some of you are absolutely sure you would, maybe some are just as sure you would not.
I have a few people in my life that has me on the fence on this matter (My younger siblings, primarily). My noble side wants to say "YES!" but the unpredictable animal side says "hmmmm... ", and it's not something I'm particularily proud of, since self-sacrifice is considered the pinnacle of noble acts.
I know some of you have served in the military, but the military does emphasize survival. The knowledge and hope of survival makes it different, and makes most of us capable of risking ourselves for others.
But outright sacrifice? To me, that's a difficult one to say for sure.
 
Dont be a dicks.

He means jumping on a grenade.

Anyway I sacrifice my life already one pack at a time, for the good of Phillip Morris.
 
I sometimes wonder about how willingness to sacrifice yourself may change over time as the average lifetime increases. If advances in medical technology mean that someone can expect to live for 200 years or more, how much would quality of life have to increase to make sacrifice not worth it.
 
Remmber the movie Indepence Day? That scene when the last F-18 with missiles jams, the pilot says "fuck it, tell my kids I love them" and goes kamikaze style into the alien's weapon, thus destroying the entire ship and teaching all the air forces in the world how to win the war.

That's the kind of sacrifice I'd do.
 
Makenshi said:
Remmber the movie Indepence Day? That scene when the last F-18 with missiles jams, the pilot says "fuck it, tell my kids I love them" and goes kamikaze style into the alien's weapon, thus destroying the entire ship and teaching all the air forces in the world how to win the war.

That's the kind of sacrifice I'd do.
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Nice example, and quite a high bar. I can understand that, to offer yourself for the sake of all the life on our planet - not merely a nation state or such a subjective entity.
A friend of mine is adament about his willingness to give his life "for the nation", as in, territorial integrity and such, which I don't really understand coming from him.

-
As for parents, those are a category of their own, and their willingness to sacrifice isn't a shocker, but they count none the less :D
I some times amuse myself imagining my dad, bravely sacrificing himself in various situations.
 
DammitBoy said:
Only for my daughter
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Yes, for a family member, or a good friend. Love choice, whatever.

In reality however, if you end up in the situation when your or someone else's ass/head is on the line, I doubt you can think. You just react, like, instinctively.

As for other reasons mentioned, I doubt I'd sacrifice my life for anything else.

My country? Hell no. I'm not a big fan of my country, and I know of people who have sacrificed their life for it, to put it that way. Being left behind do get killed because of your command's incompetence or idiotic politics your country has been leading is something I'd never do (sadly, many have been forced to).

Dying for planet? Humanity?
Yeah, sounds cool. Not gonna happen.

The only way of self-sacrifice that I find plausible is devotion - devotion to a certain idea, to a life's work, to that which you find a pinnacle of your doing and existence etc. Your sole purpose. If you find something like that, and pour your life's energies to it...well, that is respectable, I guess. That is a fine sacrifice.
And it is a cliche in dozens of movies.
 
I'm stupid. I'd have the urge to give my life to rescue a complete stranger (try to rescue someone who's drowning, or push a child out of the way of an oncoming vehicle while I could've just saved myself instead). Which is weird since I think everyone is worthless until proven otherwise.

Haven't really understood this duality yet, but I have a bit of a self-sacrifice complex. But at the same time I wouldn't allow me to be commanded into such a situation by someone else (politics, military, etc).

Maybe it's because I don't fear death (as an atheist I believe it's just nothingness & I won't even be there to realize it) and that I'm not really doing anything especially worthwhile with my life. Sure, I work and get paid well, I enjoy myself and so on. But it's not like I'm curing cancer or bringing forward the next big technology thing. Maybe if I saved someone else, their life might have more impact than mine?

Or maybe it's something entirely different that I can't think up. It's not a conscious decision, it's just a natural reflex to me.
 
SuAside said:
I'm stupid. I'd have the urge to give my life to rescue a complete stranger (try to rescue someone who's drowning, or push a child out of the way of an oncoming vehicle while I could've just saved myself instead). Which is weird since I think everyone is worthless until proven otherwise.
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That is different from outright sacrifice. What you talk about is _risk_.
With risk there is a chance of survival, and it's something much easyer to do in a rash moment. I think most of us would risk ourselves for many a cause, especially to save other people.
To sacrifice yourself, imagine a suicide-mission, for a certain cause. To willingly hand your life away. With that certainty, most will raise the bar significantly.
Would you take a bullet to the head for that same stranger, if it was you or him?
 
Only if I knew my loss would save many others and even then I'd have a lot of trouble convincing myself to do it.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
I definitely would want to if I could save someone else, but I can't help think that my fear and survival instincts might get in the way.
 
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