[Text] [Anon]

[grapeeater]

[He's been thinking over this for days. Is it his duty or not? It's not like he really needs the opinions of other people... but maybe another perspective might not hurt. Not like any of them here are normal, but some... are closer than he was.]

I've got a question. If you don't care, feel free to skip this over - there's no obligation to answer.

Say you're someone powerful, whatever that means to you. You might have money, you might have skills, or you might have whatever else that gives you an advantage over other people.

Now say there's a threat, something that risks destroying you and the people you have an advantage over. If you do nothing, you might be safe but other people would die. But if you give everything, they might be safe but you would die.

How much are you obligated to give? Be selfish and survive? Or sacrifice yourself for people who might not be thankful? And why?

Comments

[friendyousohard]

I can believe no one's pointed out how much of an oversimplification this is.

Look, most people are going to agree that the moral decision is to use your power to help. But how you go about that is important, and the degree to which you get involved can determine if you're actually a help or if you just end up making things worse. You're trying to create a vastly generic question out of something that can have hundreds of different scenarios. Depending on the threat, the "power" you have, and all sorts of other factors, getting involved directly in a way that threatens your life might not even be the best way to help! In fact, this may surprise you to hear but it usually isn't.

But I'll assume for the moment that this isn't as much of a general question as it looks like. Because frankly, if you'd never been in a situation like this you probably wouldn't even think to be asking this question. So let's assume for the moment that the scenario is one where your question makes sense. Say... there's an invading army, you have war training and those around you don't. You consider staying back to hold off the enemy while the others try to get their way to safety. You think that's the moral choice, and trying to keep yourself alive is selfish.

It's not. You have valuable knowledge and skills, and if you die they are lost. If at all possible, you want to keep yourself alive, because that could mean the difference between a few lives saved today and a lot of lives saved down the line. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't get involved at all! Using your knowledge and combat ability to help as many people as you can get away, then falling back to guide them personally, is probably the best use of your skills in that scenario. It's still a sacrifice, because we're going with your original assumption that you'd be safe if you didn't get involved, but it's not a sacrifice of your life.

Honestly... those are usually more foolish than noble.

anon fivever

[grapeeater]

[He's... surprised. It's a really thorough answer to something that he expected a lot of knee-jerk reactions to.]

All right, I'll make it less general.

There are people you want to make sure get to safety, though they personally aren't interested in being saved. There are a small number of other fighters that can hold off the attacks, and conventional weaponry is useless against them so there's no sense in calling in armed forces.

In addition, the fighters are squabbling amongst themselves and refuse to work together to gain a weapon that could end the fighting. As a single fighter capable of taking on some of the invading attackers but not all of them, is it wiser to just move the people you want to be saved to safety? Or should you stay and fight, while the people you care about are in danger?

oh yes, also anon

[friendyousohard]

[That, in Twilight's opinion, is one of the biggest advantages of text. She can just read the whole thing as long as it takes to puzzle out a real, proper answer, rather than just rattling off the first thing that comes to mind. And that's what she's going to with this, as well.]

Interesting... Well, one thing I can see right off the bat is that it's more important than I imagined that you keep yourself alive. If the amount of fighters capable of combating the threat is already low, losing even one could be disastrous, even fatal.

The short term answer to your question is that I would definitely argue that fighting the enemy is the preferable option. For one thing, what happens if you withdraw and the other fighters lose without you? Is the enemy just going to stop? Unless you know for sure they will, all you've managed to do is delay the problem. But taking the enemy head on isn't wise either. I'd use guerilla tactics. Strike hard and fast, then flee before they can mobilize a counter force. If possible, disrupt their supply lines and damage their communications. Just hit anything that would slow them down and give you some breathing room.

The long term answer to your problem has already shown itself... someone needs to unite these fighters, or any other choice is just a temporary solution at best. And if no one else is going to do it, you may have to be the one who steps up. I realize that can probably seem like a monumentous task, but looking at the information you've given me, I can't see any either way you can save yourself or the people depending on you.

hooray, anon buddies!

[grapeeater]

In this case, guerrilla tactics weren't effective, and me uniting the fighters wasn't possible. It wasn't a conventional enemy.

I realize that giving a real life example wasn't fair... but I was curious what other people would do.

But you've given it a lot more thought than other people have. And if everyone in the situation had thought it out like this, maybe we would have won.

[friendyousohard]

A question like this one deserves to have some serious thought put into it.

And, if you don't mind my asking... Was the situation still going on when you left? It doesn't look like it could possibly have been resolved positively given the situation you described.

[grapeeater]

I agree, but apparently not everyone does.

... The person I care most about is dead and there's no one left to claim the weapon who would use it in any sort of way that would end up with a positive outcome.

[friendyousohard]

[Wow. That's possibly the worst outcome she could have imagined save for his whole world being destroyed or enslaved.]

I'm so sorry to hear that. I... I can't imagine what that must be like.

Do... do you have any idea what's going to happen to you if you go back home?

[grapeeater]

[Not everyone can be from a sparkly pony world, unfortunately.]

Not really. It's only a matter of time until he gets it.

[friendyousohard]

[It's like what would have happened if she'd actually lost against any of her enemies.

Total loss, that is.]

I don't know what to say. I certainly can't blame you if you decided to just be selfish after that kind of devastating loss. I'd like to believe there's always a way to come back no matter how bad things get, but you know the situation on your world better than I could ever hope to, so...

[grapeeater]

It's difficult to tell. I don't think so, but... well. I've been surprised before.

[friendyousohard]

I guess the only thing to do is hope. Which I understand might be rather difficult for you at this point.

And, well... to maybe make a better life here.

[grapeeater]

Yeah. It's a lot nicer here. Less... harsh.

[friendyousohard]

Beyond the reality of being attacked by wild Pokemon every few steps outside the cities and the ever-looming threat of Team Rocket, it's really almost surreal how peaceful this place is. Then again, if it weren't for the occasional world-ending threat I suppose you could probably say the same about my home world.

[grapeeater]

Neither of those are really big threats, though, are they? As long as you train your Pokemon up you'll be fine in either case, right?


And... oh. That sounds... difficult.

[friendyousohard]

Well, after a certain point, that's mostly true, especially the wild Pokemon. But Team Rocket outnumbers individual trainers and some of their members have trained their Pokemon to attack trainers instead of their Pokemon. They're still dangerous no matter how strong you are.

As for my world, it's not really that bad... I mean, we have beaten them all so far.

[grapeeater]

I guess that makes sense, since it seems like the logical move in a battle. It's only because of this world's rules that people generally don't. But I can defend myself... and if all else fails, I can run.

But that's good.

[friendyousohard]

I'm glad to hear that. I know a distressingly large number of people who would stand their ground even if it's a terrible idea. Courage is laudable, but foolishness isn't.

Anyway, we've sort of strayed from the topic, haven't we? I suppose... in the end, I think that everyone has a responsibility to do something, but by the same token, trying to force all of that onto one person's shoulders without supporting them is wrong, too. I can't tell someone in good conscience to risk their life for people who aren't willing to at least help them however they can, even if it's just little things. That's not heroism. It's abuse.

[grapeeater]

Agreed. Though I'm starting to think that perhaps this is one of those circumstances where there's no right answer, or that everyone involved was wrong in some way.

[friendyousohard]

Those are a lot more common than the reverse, sadly. I hope you weren't looking for a simple answer... outside of the realm of mathematics, there are precious few of those in any world.

[grapeeater]

No, though most people think it's simple.

Though math doesn't always have simple answers. It depends on the type of math.

[friendyousohard]

Well, maybe not so much "simple" as "definite". My point is, a lot of things don't have a single right answer. There is no "one true way".

[grapeeater]

That's fair. There's a lot of things that have far too much grey area.

[friendyousohard]

It does mean you have more of a chance to make your own answers to life's questions, at least.