Count me as one who thinks murder is a bad thing. Although I can’t see myself doing CPR on the guy and dragging him to the hospital, if I really thought his life were in danger I might call 911 on my cell phone. To become a murderer even through a sin of omission would dishonor not just me but my loved ones and would be the final victory for the original perpetrator.
I recognize this is all coldly hypothetical since I’ve never been or am never likely to be in such a situation, but it’s interesting that amid all the violent and sometimes sadistic revenge fantasies, we have two posters for whom this scenario is tragically close to home and whose replies are among the most moderate.
Good question. I guess we just move forward assuming everyone is answering in good faith; I’ll still take some of the answers with a grain of salt, since I believe they are more extreme than people actually are.
Why do people keep dragging things like “justice” and who is allowed to dispense it into this thread? We aren’t talking about vigilanteism or anything like it, as I understood this thread. We are talking about revenge, plain and simple. If you confuse revenge with vigilante justice, then you don’t really understand vengeance.
Zebra and GusNSpot, thanks for your posts in this thread. I’m very sorry for your losses. No one should have to go through such horror, but it’s reassuring to see that people can and retain or regain their rationality and moral compasses. As I wrote previously, I’ll probably never face such a situation, but I’d like to think that, although I would be damaged, I would remain fundamentally the same person.
You know, I kept skipping over this topic, because as I read the thread title, I would look at my two young sons, my wife, and think “Well, of course I would exact revenge…who wouldn’t?”
But then I actually started reading some of the replies, particularly Gus’s, and I just don’t know given the premise that I could do it. And this is from a man that served in Gulf Wars I that comes from a long lineage of West Point Graduates and WWII and Vietnam veterans…
I think the fact that I would feel guilt over comitting such an act for the rest of my life coupled with the fear of being caught and subsequently put away for doing it would be just enough to give me pause.
I’d probably just give the guy one of those “within an inch of his life” ass-beatings and leave it at that.
Out of curiosity, where are you putting those of us who have said we’d do nothing - not kill, not help, not call for help, just drive by and let nature take its course? Is that, in your estimation, “seeking some revenge”?
I probably put that in no revenge, I definitely did not count it as a revenge vote. Revenge votes were only the ones who would take strong action to harm or kill.