# Would You Use This Power **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 1, 2009, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432 "2009-09-01T02:19:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/21 "2009-09-01T09:34:21Z")
Would I use it? Yes. Yes, I would. The news websites would be filled with stories of deceased world dictators and general trouble makers in one 24 our period. It would be fun to see how the FBI, CIA, Interpol, etc., would react and how they would go about investigating. People at the local pub would think I’m evil by cackling at the news when they showed the military funeral footage. 😃 There is one HUGE down side though. Any big argument with a friend, girlfriend, guy who got the promotion instead of you might propose someone to test this power on many who would never deserve it. And there’s always alcohol… Waking up the next morning trying to remember who you killed last night while wasted. :smack: No, I wouldn’t give it to anyone else. And it would definitely have to be instant. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/22 "2009-09-01T09:39:39Z")
I would use it and I would love it. It would be an act of humanism. I view the whole of mankind as a surgeon views a human body. Most of it is good and decent. But there are some people or groups of people who are a cancer on society, just like there would be a cancer in the body, crippling it and spreading to other parts. The surgeon would eliminate the cancer. I would eliminate the people. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/23 "2009-09-01T09:45:02Z")
I don’t really think I could justify NOT using it, given the existence of such people as dictators who are face no restraint on their actions. Part of the problem of course is the slippery slope; once I start using it to kills the bad people, the risk is that I’d start using it to kill progressively less bad people. The other problem is that it’s a rather narrow, limited power. It just lets you kill; not, say, find out if someone is actually guilty of something and not put them in prison or whatever; just kill. It’s a blunt instrument. But I don’t think that I morally could let the hypothetical of me becoming corrupted negate the certainty that such people as genocidal dictators would keep right on killing while I dithered. And in this scenario, killing would be the only tool I have. I’d have to come up with some rigid code of standards of proof and never deviate from it. Unless it’s capable of targeting someone on something as vague as “the person who killed that little girl yesterday”; in that case the power would provide it’s own proof. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/24 "2009-09-01T12:01:03Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Wouldn’t you at least have to know their names? Rumpelstiltskin! Is anyone else starting to worry that **Curtis LeMay** is a serial killer? What’s with all the threads about whether it’s ok to murder people? ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/25 "2009-09-01T12:19:58Z")
> [@athelas](#): > > [This guy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_note) would. That was the first thing I thought of. It gets very messy very quickly, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo\_Pin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mojo\_Pin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo_Pin)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/26 "2009-09-01T12:54:28Z")
> [@fuzzypickles](#): > > Not only would I use this power, I actually _have_ this power, and I use it all the time. Especially with people who cut me off on the freeway. > > The only problem is that it takes years, even decades, before the spell has any effect. For Ted Kennedy, it took over 38 years. 😃 [QUOTE=Argent Towers] I would use it and I would love it. It would be an act of humanism. I view the whole of mankind as a surgeon views a human body. Most of it is good and decent. But there are some people or groups of people who are a cancer on society, just like there would be a cancer in the body, crippling it and spreading to other parts. The surgeon would eliminate the cancer. I would eliminate the people. [/QUOTE] I’m curious how some murderous dictators would answer this question and whether it’d really be all that different from your response. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/27 "2009-09-01T13:24:48Z")
Yes I would take the power and then find a mountaintop reflecting on the best way to use it. After the time it took to read the thread, my initial thought is that I would: 1. Announce my power to world leaders; 2. Demonstrate my power on all beyond-a-doubt death row inmates; 3. Tell the world leaders to shape up or in the barrel they go. 4. After the Peace & Harmony Era has taken hold, sell my power for Profit! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/28 "2009-09-01T13:37:08Z")
No thanks. I already sometimes find myself wishing coworkers off the side of a bridge or similar, and I can see myself accidentally offing someone without meaning to. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/29 "2009-09-01T13:38:47Z")
No, it wouldn’t be any less murder because I could get away with it. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/30 "2009-09-01T13:50:21Z")
I just tried it on two people. . . don’t think it worked though. 😉 Yes, I would use it. I don’t know of anybody else to whom I would be willing to hand it off. Anybody who I trusted enough to hand it off to would have to be someone I loved too much to burden with it. But it’s a burden I’d be willing to take on. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/31 "2009-09-01T13:52:21Z")
I am imagining what would happen if everyone had this power. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/32 "2009-09-01T13:52:38Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Note these questions are derived from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, PH.D (New York: Workman), 1988. > > You are given the power to kill people simply by thinking of their deaths and twice repeating the word “good-bye.” People would die a natural death and no one would suspect you. Are there any situations in which you would use this power? > > For criminals and dictators yes. For instance I could end the War on Terrorism by simultenously killing all the members of Al-Qaeda. 1. All criminals? 2. Define “terrorist”. 3. Please name the dictators you would murder. ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/33 "2009-09-01T15:25:55Z")
I wouldn’t use it. Sure dictators are bad, but after you kill them, what comes up in their place? It seems to me it would most likely be worse, not better. ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/34 "2009-09-01T15:44:21Z")
I’m pretty sure I could figure out someone to give it to, without fear. And I’m also pretty sure I’d use it. Maybe ten times, maybe a hundred. Hard to say. For example, I would have used it without fear on those three pirates. Enemies To All Mankind, and so on. The odd hostage situation, the kidnapper rapists of small children? While they present a clear and present danger, not after, though. Once you start dealing in politics, it becomes more difficult. But could I do it? Yes, if I was convinced it was the right thing to do. You’ve given someone a gun that never misses, and can be used from continents away. It’s a scary concept, but one that can be quite easily used for the good of people, rather than as a tool of evil. It can be used to preserve, protect, and defend as easily as it can be to terrorize. Would I take out Hitler? Yes. Bin Laden? Yes, to be on the safe side, but I don’t think he’s the appropriate target anymore. I’m not sure who is, though. Let’s say ‘AQ #1-3’ in several countries, including a few in Africa. This is not for people you disagree with. This is for people who pose clear and immediate threats to humanity as a whole, or to specific people in an immediate setting. Could I do it? I don’t know. Not having to see them would make it easier. I could probably force myself, and then I’d probably kill myself after a bit, but yeah, I probably would, to make the world a better place. Better: Less full of fear, terror, and coercion. People not to use it on: Chavez, Putin, Cheney. Just because they’re evil bastards doesn’t make them any less human. On the other hand? Pol Pot? Dead. Opinions? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/35 "2009-09-01T15:53:16Z")
How many times would you have to use this power before you became a bad guy yourself? ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/36 "2009-09-01T16:00:06Z")
I don’t know. On one hand, it could save a lot of people some grief. On the other hand, while humanity has colossally screwed up over the course of history, we seem to have learned from our mistakes before they’ve destroyed us, so far. Removing the consequences of experiments of governance doesn’t seem like it would teach us much. I would be extremely wary of this power, partially because I would assume that however it was granted, the entity granting it would have their own agenda. If it appeared to be a random mutation, I still wouldn’t want to use it. That doesn’t necessarily mean I wouldn’t, but thinking about it now, without that power, I wouldn’t want to. ---
**Author:** ![Telcontar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/37 "2009-09-01T16:02:36Z")
_shivers_ I would use it, but i’d have to wrap the decision to use it in procedures, formalities, and, most of all, the consent of other trusted people. It might really make the world a better place: drug kingpins, major terrorists, maybe 1 world leader. But i would trust myself alone, there’s too much temptation. Better to only act when certain trusted others agree. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/38 "2009-09-01T16:46:25Z")
If I had this power I would immidiately start using it compulsively out of anger and stupid impulse on people who have merely pissed me off; the guilt which would soon follow would either drive me to use it with nihilistic reckless abandon, or to turn it on myself. Um, you can keep it, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/39 "2009-09-01T16:50:02Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > 1. All criminals? No: murderers, rapists, pedophiles, kidnappers, traitors, and other of that ilk. > [@](#): > > 1. Define “terrorist”. Those on the Terrorist list by the State Department > [@](#): > > 1. Please name the dictators you would murder. Let’s see here: 1. Kim Jong Il 2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 3. Robert Mugabe 4. Omar Al Bashir (Of Soudan) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2009, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432/40 "2009-09-01T17:03:52Z")
Incidentally, if we’re talking fictional treatments, Orson Scott Card also wrote a story on the theme, “An Eye for an Eye”. In his, the protagonist’s power works subconsciously, whenever he gets angry at someone, and causes cancer in them (or more acute illness, if he really gets worked up). And I would like to amend my previous answer. If the power could also be used on animals, I would make attempts to study it on rats or whatever, in the hopes that it could lead to something that could benefit people. I still wouldn’t use it on humans, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-use-this-power/508432.md?page=3)