# What would you do to save your life?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [November 2, 1999, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456 "1999-11-02T06:55:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 15\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/21 "1999-11-03T05:42:00Z")

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I sure hope no one I love would have as much pride as some of you guys. . . .

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**Author:** ![putrid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@putrid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/putrid)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/22 "1999-11-03T14:29:00Z")

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I see this as two different matters. I have (very rarely) been hassled by punks. I always _ignore_ them, which is to say back down. Yes, I am _enabling_ them and reinforcing their bulliness but that’s that. People may laugh at me but I worry about that about as much as I worry what the squirrels in the trees think of me.

When such a situation involves my parked car, I move it – specifically so that the jerks don’t go back and _prove their manliness_ by giving me flats or scratches. I am able to let the matter drop and not rehash it in my mind and burn over the unfairness of it. Worthless punks are worthless punks. You can’t let their memory bother you or they have \*\*won\</strong).

I do not _enable_ bad driving. I try to point out to jerks that what they have done on the road is unacceptable by honking or whatever. But when such a jerk convinces me that he is drunk or psycho, I put a lot of distance between me and him.

If someone undeniably threatened my life outright, things would be different than my being in danger of being knifed with witnesses not seeing any weapons. (Nothing even remotely close to either of those situations has ever happened to me.) I figure my hands would be untied to respond any way I wished without having to worry about my actions possibly being inappropriate.

As for what loved ones think about some guy dying in a situation like this, that seems to vary widely, from what I read in the papers. Some people are very proud of friends or relatives who even poke their noses into crimes not involving them but then end up dead. Others are very unhappy with relatives simply trying to defend themselves. [Yes, I realize that all of this is off-topic for the OP’s now more clearly stated rules.]

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**Author:** ![putrid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e5b9ba/32.png) [@putrid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/putrid)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/23 "1999-11-03T14:30:00Z")

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Oops, sorry about screwing up the bolding.

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**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/24 "1999-11-03T16:26:00Z")

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I’m sure I’d puke instantly if I ate poop too, but to save my life you’d better believe I’d at least try. ::gag::

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–  
O p a l C a t  
[www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com)

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**Author:** ![Demo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demo/32/8472_2.png) [@Demo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Demo)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/25 "1999-11-03T16:43:00Z")

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I’d much rather eat shit than “poop”. Poop sounds so gross!

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/26 "1999-11-03T17:00:00Z")

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I would lie to the police. That’s what I would do.

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**Author:** ![AuraSeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AuraSeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuraSeer)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/27 "1999-11-03T17:14:00Z")

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Scenario: Some dude with a gun tells me to eat shit or get a bullet in the head.

My response: I point to my temple and say, “Blow me.”

I’m not afraid of death, though I’m not sure why this is. It has little or nothing to do with religion, because I don’t hold any definite beliefs on whether there’s an afterlife; but for some unknown reason, a clean death holds no terror for me. (I’d be less sanguine about death by slow torture, or after a long illness. But that’s probably worthy of its own thread.)

* * *

Laugh hard; it’s a long way to the bank.

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**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/28 "1999-11-03T22:50:00Z")

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AuraSeer: so you either have no loved ones or you just don’t care about how they would feel without you?

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–  
O p a l C a t  
[www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com)

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**Author:** ![metroshane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@metroshane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metroshane)\
**Post date:** [November 3, 1999, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/29 "1999-11-03T23:11:00Z")

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OH, PPPPPPLEEEEEEEEEASE!

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Mmm hehe um yah jack am coke, yah yah, vodka- Keith Richards

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**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/30 "1999-11-04T00:14:00Z")

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What? It is a valid question. Fearing death for yourself is one thing, but the real pain of death is for those you leave behind.

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–  
O p a l C a t  
[www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com)

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**Author:** ![AuraSeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@AuraSeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuraSeer)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/31 "1999-11-04T00:14:00Z")

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Sure, I have friends and family, and I imagine they’ll miss me when I’m gone. But grief isn’t permanent. When I do die, the people who love me will mourn for a while, but then they’ll move on with their lives.

I’m more worried that I would end up crippled or comatose, and that I’d be a burden to the people I love. A death may be painful to the survivors, but the event is quickly done, and mourning can only go on for so long.

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**Author:** ![BugZap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b77776/32.png) [@BugZap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BugZap)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/32 "1999-11-04T03:23:00Z")

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What? It is a valid question. Fearing death for yourself is one thing, but the real pain of death is for those you leave behind.]]] opal

Tryin’ to tell us something, are you?

Those left behind will always be as safe as you are now.

Anticipated pain is fear of the future.  
Worst case thinking.  
Death may be painful, or it may be supremely wonderful, hey, you get to see the light at the end of the tunnel, don’t you?

Either way, the worries are groundless.  
You’ll be dead, you won’t know.  
They’ll be Ok, life goes on.

We all are free to leave anytime we like, and yet we like to stick around, something interesting might happen?  
So what’s the hurry?  
What’s the worry?

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**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/33 "1999-11-04T05:40:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> I’m sure I’d puke instantly if I ate poop too, but to save my life you’d better believe I’d at least try. ::gag::

Well, the thing is, not only have I not done what was required to stay alive (eat the poop), but now this nice evil psychopath\* has vomit all over him. That ain’t gonna make him happy, and so my choice would be a quick death from the clean psychopath rather than a lingering painful death from the pissed-off vomit-covered psychopath.

\*Who else but a psychopath is going to be forcing people to eat poop?

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**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/34 "1999-11-04T05:50:00Z")

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Everyone must die, yes, but why die before you have to.  
Also, I think I should clarify something else… when I set up the question I wasn’t thinking like psychopath with a gun or anything… I was thinking more like somewhere in a lab, run by the government or something… very scientific. Nothing personal or malicious. Just do this or we fill the room with gas and you die…that kind of thing.

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–  
O p a l C a t  
[www.opalcat.com](http://www.opalcat.com)

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**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\
**Post date:** [November 4, 1999, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-you-do-to-save-your-life/10456/35 "1999-11-04T07:15:00Z")

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MEMO

TO: All Dopers who choose death in this thread  
FROM: Yer Pal, Satan  
RE: Your Life Insurance Policy

Please change your beneficiary immediately to Satan, someone who would rather breathe, live, and maybe exact revenge on his tormenter(s) than just quite out of some foolish pride.

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Yer pal,  
Satan

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