I was reading about some gangsters today and how one was apparently forced to dig his own grave before he was killed. If you knew you were going to be killed either way would you bother digging your own grave in that situation? I’d like to think I’d say “fuck it, dig your own hole!”
There’s no way to know what one would do in the situation, but I would not be inclined to dig my own grave. If I know for a fact that I’m to be killed, then I’ve nothing to lose by fighting back – except for a few minutes of life.
I would start digging, then throw dirt in the gunman’s eyes and whack him with the shovel. Nothing to lose, anyway.
Regards,
Shodan
It gets you a weapon in hand and a few minutes to possibly get an opening to use it.
I would do like Valery did in The Sopranos episode Pine Barrens: Dig my grave at gunpoint before turning and disabling my would-be murderers with the shovel. Then, using my elite Spetsnaz training, I would vanish into my environment.
But no, seriously, like John said, I have no clue what I’d do. I’d like to think that, knowing I’m about to die, I’d say “fuck it” and attack my adversaries. But really, far braver men than me have been forced to dig their own graves and didn’t resist.
“Man…this ground is really hard…would you happen to have a pick?”
As was said already, no way any of us can know what we’d actually do in such a situation (fear/panic can be an irrational bitch) but I LIKE to think I would do what a few others said and fight back. At that point, wth do you have to lose?
Yeah, just hand me that shovel and I’ll get busy. 
Barring that, I’d hope I was strong enough to force THEM to dig the damn grave themselves. :mad:
Indeed. And since there are tons of examples of people doing that (mass murders, for instance), I’m going to assume that indeed most humans do dig their own grave instead of fighting back when faced with certain death. So, being an human, I assume it’s more likely than not that I would obediently dig my grave.
I answered “other” , meaning “You can’t ever know how you would actually react in extreme situations, so I can’t tell”.
What a delightful topic for a poll.
Anyway does this really happen that much outside of fiction?
Giving someone you want to kill a shovel is really a pretty bad idea for the sake of saving yourself a bit of manual labor, but it makes for great TV because of the emotional stakes involved.
Yes.
I’d dig. I’d look for a chance to attack the gunman, or at the very least take every second I could get to delay the shot in the hope (however remote) that something would surprise us both and interrupt the act (e.g., the cops, an innocent wanderer, Superman, etc.).
I’d dig … having recently had to bury some pets … digging holes can take a long time … digging a hole big enough for a human is going to take an even longer time (in my ground … probably about 3 or more hours) … hopefully by then the murder-to-be will be bored (maybe even bored to death!).
I’d dig - as others said, in the improbable hope of something unexpected intervening.
I voted: let them break a sweat.
But after reading some of the other posts, I think I might dig and hope someone would come along. Maybe make a lot of noise while digging. Something.
Agreed. I’d like to think that I’d either have the opportunity to turn the tables or at least piss off my murderers. “Sure, I’ll dig. Give me a plastic spoon.”
I might dig but I’d be taking some tiny fucking spadefulls of dirt.
To paraphrase Spock, “If you’re going to kill me anyway, I choose not to cooperate.”
Though not precisely on topic, the scene that Dennis Hopper did with Christopher Walken in True Romance takes this issue to sublime heights. There are several YouTube versions of it, and if you haven’t seen it before, it’s the ideal way to cope with such a no-win situation. My favorite scene. Period.
Definitely dig. Delay your death as much as possible, engage the gunman in conversation, make him feel at ease, look for an opening, then smash his skull open with the shovel.
In an episode of Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid started digging the grave, then acted like he was too weak to finish it. The sociopathic, if incredibly stupid, criminal put down the gun and grabbed the shovel. Then Reid, being the FBI guy he is, picked up the gun and shot him.