I know this depends greatly on the situation, so let’s say that you are walking down the street and you witness a violent mugging. Do you step in, possibly risking your very life, or do you let the mugging continue, knowing that the person involved might be killed?
Why or Why not? No judgements need to be passed, so please answer honestly.
moejuck
i think your headline and your post really are asking two very different questions. if i intervened to try to help someone else it would be with the expectation that i would succeed. things could certainly go wrong (maybe somebody who looks unarmed pulls a gun), but i wouldn’t even think of intervening if i KNEW that i would be killed. it’s hard to believe that anyone would do otherwise. even soldiers in combat expect to go home. for one thing, how would it help the victim for you to get killed? maybe you would make the situation worse. maybe intervening would turn a mugging into a double murder (the bad guy pulls a gun and kills you for jumping on him, and then kills the original victim to eliminate the witness). and how would my death affect the people in my life that i have responsibilities for and obligations to? and why am i supposed to declare that my life is worth less than somebody else’s? i might RISK my life to help a stranger, depending on the circumstances (i hope i would try to help a child being dragged into a stranger’s car, but i think i’d walk away from a punch-out between two adults), but what’s the point of deliberately getting killed?
but your question also presumes that the choice is to intervene physically or do nothing. just raising an alarm will stop a lot of incidents. you could wave your cell phone from half a block a way and shout “the police are coming.” you don’t have to play chuck norris.
the same principle applies in any life or death situation. if someone falls through thin ice, are you helping him if you crawl out on the ice and fall through too? or would it be smarter to go to a phone and call 911? do you run into a burning building to help someone you think is trapped? then when the firemen show up they have to risk their lives looking for you too? or would it be smarter to wait outside and tell the firemen “there’s an invalid on the third floor in the back?”
you can help somebody else without being stupid. and getting killed is stupid.
Yes, of course.
I would do most anything to save the life of a child.
Before I had kids, the answer would have been yes, but now I now that the first thing I would think of would be my kids and how they would be hurt if something happened to me.
Tough question.
How likely I am to interfere depends on how likely I feel that actual physical damage will occur. I may not risk my life over a wallet or a purse or a car, but I would most likely intervene if I get a “serious beating or worse” vibe. Shows how stupid I am, and my hidden urges to get of this mortal coil in a “justified, non-suicide” way.
That’s hard to answer.
Currently I would be of no use to anyone in that situation because I would be unarmed and I am still out of shape, despite losing a lot of weight. I never learned to fight, physically, so my throwing a punch would be useless. (This is why I am going to start TKD soon.)
Now, if I was armed (and another 100 pounds lighter), maybe that’d be different. I certainly would hope that I could do society a service and blow away the perp, but then there’s the chance that I’d hit the victim instead.
Would I intentionally get into the situation magically knowing that I would be dead by the end of it? No. My daughter needs me. When I had her I signed up to do everything within my power to stick around until she is grown. Trying to play hero when I’m ill equipped doesn’t jive with that.
And yeah … what Reader99 said.
I do not think any one real knows what they would do in any situation until it happens.I would like to think i would help but i do not know honestly what i would do.
I guess the title of the thread should be would you RISK your life for a stranger. I’m talking about intervening in a situation that possibly presents a life threatening situation, not one that is sure to kill you. **Reader ** brings up some good points.
Would you go into that burning building? Would you try to save someone that falls through the ice? These are precisely the situations that I am talking about.