As mentioned in the other DINAO thread (Sex!), in college, my friends and I would play a game called “Death is Not an Option.” You present participants with two equally gruesome options, and they HAVE to pick one-- death is not an option. Therefore, if you’ve opened this thread, you must answer; death is not an option (nor is exiting without voting!).
Next topic up: Imprisonment. You have to pick one of the two. And while death is not an option, in this specific scenario, neither is survival guaranteed.
Would you rather:
1)Spend 24 months locked up in a maximum-security federal prison.
2) Spend 24 hours buried six-feet underground in a wooden coffin.
I assume that I will be supplied with some extra oxygen inside that coffin? Otherwise, I would think survival is not only not guaranteed, but pretty much out of the question, making death very much an option.
I voted for the coffin before I was even sure that there would be a way to provide me with adequate oxygen. Now that I know breathing won’t be an issue, it’s the easiest decision I’ve made all day.
Well, I handled my 30-minute MRI okay, so it’s just doing that 48 times, right? No problem!
In seriousness, I’m sure the 24 hours underground would be psychologically very difficult but I’d still take it over spending 2 years away from friends and family.
The coffin sure seems tempting, but given that I’m quite a bit claustrophobic, I’m not sure I’d survive the 24 hours. Maybe I’d just burst a vessel or have a heart attack induced by lethal-level, irrational panic? Then again, two years in a windowless cell for nothing is an utterly terrifying thought, and not altogether different from the six-feet-under option. I’d have to try my luck with the coffin.
I’m not remotely claustrophobic and I can keep myself from going insane by a combination of my own thoughts and sleeping. Since death is not an option, I’m assuming death is also not a possible consequence.
Coffin wouldnt even phase me, so thats my choice. I think the bigger issue is with people who have a serious fear of tight places AND would be afraid of getting attacked or have bad things happen to them while in prision. THOSE folks have a tough choice.
I think the worst scenario would have to be sleeping with my mother, smoking a pack of cigarettes, being homeless while the outside temperature is not to my liking, fighting Bruce Lee, forced to recycle my garbage, getting behind somebody with 15 items in the 12 items express checkout, having to dress like a Guido, being sentenced to prison, and then being buried alive at the end.
The key is in the thread title: death is not an option. Thus I select the shorter of the two time periods to be inconvenienced. Neither is on my bucket list.
Coffin with an air supply. Easy peasy. The week I’ve been having, I might even enjoy the rest and relaxation. Okay, probably not; the need to urinate would probably ruin the experience. Still much prefereable to prison, though.
I don’t think I’m more claustrophobic than the average person, but the coffin thing is making me all panicky to think about. So I guess I choose prison, and I assume it’s a women’s prison which probably won’t be as bad as a men’s prison, and I hope I can request protective custody.
This is pretty much me. I don’t think I do bad in tight spaces, but for 24 hours it would be hell. Especially not being able to turn and such, and the darkness. Yeah, I’ll take two years in the pen.
The choice seems incredibly easy to be, but I really can’t picture myself not flipping the hell out while underground and probably harming myself somehow in the process.
I’d still go with the coffin, but it would be one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life.
I voted for the prison because the OP said “survival is not guaranteed”, since that gets revised to “there is air provided in the coffin” I’d change my vote to 24 hours in a coffin. Without the air, as others have said, I’m fairly certain 24 hours in an underground coffin would be lethal.
I don’t think 2 years in a Federal prison would be bad at all on a list of “gruesome things to choose between” in hypothetical situations.