datalink7

Yes, I could kill.

I have not been tested on this, but I'm sure I will within about 2-4 years. I just joined the Army ROTC, and will be deployable within 2 years.

Will I like killing? I don't think so. I at least sincerely hope that I won't like it. But I do believe that I can do it.

It is almost a scary feeling, knowing that you have the power to compel yourself to kill...

But sometimes ugly things are neccesary.

__________________
Ashes and diamons
foe and friend
we are all equal
in the end.

RippedSock1

I'm with the majority; I would always choose to kill in order to preserve my life or another innocent's life (especially of those I love).

I'd rather live with my decision of killing a potential killer than if there was an innocent person who was killed and I had the potential to stop that action from ocurring. (run-on :\)

I also agree that it is scary to think of the power that I (or even any other person) have to kill. I could choose, throughout the course of the day, to kill just about anyone. If a 'chose' to drive my car into a busy office building, I could very well do that... and end up with deaths.

I'm not a dark person at all, I can just see the potential that any given person has to kill. I'm sure most people have thought of something like this at some point... so don't view me as a morbid, psychotic killer or something.

josobot

Still, hard to say whether I would hesitate enough to get me killed. In Viet-Nam, I and many of my outfit were not inclined to kill and even omitted carring M-16 for personal defense...I once drove a chaplan from Dong Ha to a camp up in the hills late in the afternoon, both unarmed. But 99% of the time I was armed(a medic) but more afraid of mines and RPGs. Things haven't changed much. However, as a parent, I am confident there would be zero hesitation with someone endangering a child.

Eldaire

Ooooooohhhhh... my antithesis. My yang. Cool. I wish I could meet you in person.

neddy65

I am saddened to say that yes, I would kill if the circumstances warranted. Would I revel in it? No! Would I hesitate at some crucial moment? Probably. I think that in a situation that would limit your options to kill or be killed the adrenalin would be thick in your blood and you would do about anything for self preservation or the lives of those you love.

__________________
If you're travelling at the speed of light, and you turn the headlights on, do they do anything?

My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die!

Drink Dickens' Hard Cider because nothing makes a girl smile like a Hard DIckens' Cider!

Kyo

At this point, I can't resist cautioning you with the old cliche, "Be careful what you wish for ..."

__________________
Sure I have a heart; it's floating in a jar in my closet, along with my tonsils, my appendix, and all of the other useless organs I ripped out.

matthew330

I think you said in another post "Civilization weeds out people like you" to someone who said they couldn't kill.

With regard to the first quote - dude, you need help (I hope i didn't put my location in my profile.

as far as the second - to the contrary, civilization weeds out people like you (I hope they fry John Mohammed and Lee Malvo).

j03th3j3w

yes.. i could kill someone.. but only in the kill or be killed circumstance... but to jus randomly kill someone.. no..

Kyo

First, I think that if people really looked in themselves, the capacity to kill - for any reason at all - is there. Over the years, we build up a shield, or container, if you will, over this capacity, either out of fear, denial, or social pressure (after all, nobody likes a serial killer).

My point is that everyone can kill, for any reason. It is my belief that this is not a special quality, but a trait intrinsic in all living things. It is simply another animal instinct that we have tried to hide and supress, as opposed to the instinct of lust, which we have allowed to flourish.

Therefore, there is nothing extraordinary about the ability to kill random people without guilt or conscience. Actually committing the act complicates things, but simply have the ability to do it, without actually doing it, means little.

As for your second comment, it depends on what you mean by civilization, a distinction which I admittedly failed to address. People who are unable to kill are unable to defend themselves and therefore unfit to live. The only reason people can manage to live without committing such acts against each other is the structure of laws and the universal moral brainwashing of our children. We are taught that killing is wrong, therefore we are less likely to do it, even when the urge is upon us. We are told that murder will result in incarceration or death if we are caught, therefore we are less likely to do it. So in one sense, today's society does indeed weed out murderers and other deviants.

However, consider the other side of the coin. Serial killers routinely prey on helpless, innocent individuals. They will not, for instance, go after mafia bosses or professional bodyguards. They go for the little 12 year-old boy living next door, the housewife down the street, or the petite 18-year old girl at the local mall.

If you take everything into account, you will find that society, and those within society, have a way of 'weeding out' all manners of people - the only difference being the method in which they are extracted.

And even then, we are talking about modern society - if you consider societies in both distant and near history, might makes right is not uncommon. Not so long ago, arguments were solved with duels, in both hemispheres of the world, and perfectly legal killings in the streets for what we consider today to be trivial things were commonplace. On a larger scale, wars are a direct measure of a country's ability to fight and destroy another. To paraphrase a fairly well-known quote, the West is dominant today not because of the superiority of its morals but because of its ability to apply organized violence. Therefore, we have applied our western morals and beliefs on those that we have defeated, and demanded that they acknowledge our superiority in all matters.

Quite simply, we are here today because of our collective capacity to kill one another.

__________________
Sure I have a heart; it's floating in a jar in my closet, along with my tonsils, my appendix, and all of the other useless organs I ripped out.

matthew330

All of your posts have suggested that there is in each an everyone of us an innate capacity to kill for no reason at all - an animal instict (i believe you called it) that is suppressed by years of social moray's and "proper upbringing."

The only instict that comes into play in this realm is survival. That is found in every animal species, not the instinct to kill for no reason at all. Animals obviously don't/can't justify when they kill, because, well - their animals. But name me one animal species that kills randomly and is not motivated by one of the conditions you mentioned above that you trivialize and write off as some sort of defense mechanism to suppress our instinct to kill randomly and go eat lunch at the local deli with a second thought.

Kyo

One animal species? Humans, of course.

Do you deny that humans we, as a race, are attracted to violence? The sight of blood has stirred the beasts of humans and animal alike for countless centuries. My guess is that animals do not kill more often because they lack the capacity to enjoy it. Just as they do not spend all of their time procreating, they do not kill when it is not somehow necessary, according to their genetic and environmental programming. Humans, on the other hand, do not lack such capacity, and tend to engage in what we find pleasurable whenever an opportunity presents itself.

We, as a race, enjoy fighting. Violence sells as well as sex. We have perfected sports, martial arts, and various other non-lethal activities as substitutes for true combat - a gentleman's fight, in other words. It is obvious that somewhere within our minds, there is a trigger that equates violence with pleasure, so long as said violence is not inflicted upon ourselves (though to some, it is pleasureable even then).

If you read Lord of the Flies, or watched any movies that expanded on the primary thrust of that novel, do you find it so unreal and terrifying that children could kill so easily? That people who might have once called each other friend now hunted one another like game? Certainly, those who live in modern society might find it disturbing, but it would be naive to think it unreal. To kill simply because we are able is not such a strange and remarkable thing.

We can consider this from a different angle. A concience is developed - it is not innate. There are no such things as a priori morals. Right and wrong must be taught. Therefore, our view that killing is wrong is actually a massive social brainwashing - for our benefit, certainly, but a brainwashing nonetheless. There is no way for you to say that, beyond any doubt and with absolute authority that killing is wrong. No, that's simply what you believe. What you, and everyone around you, has been told since the day you were born.

Because this is so, we must consider all morals to be additions - not innate. Therefore, the actions that they were designed to inhibit must be innate - we are taught that hurting others is cruel and wrong, therefore we stop. Otherwise, we would continue to hurt others. Children can be surprisingly cruel before they are taught sufficient moral responsibility to feel bad about what they are doing. I argue, then, that the capacity to kill is no different. A child who has not been taught any morals can kill anyone without guilt - someone who has no concience can act at a whim.

__________________
Sure I have a heart; it's floating in a jar in my closet, along with my tonsils, my appendix, and all of the other useless organs I ripped out.

The.Lunatic

yes easily in a second, but only in a situation where it was justified, and the consequences would be minimal.

__________________
Proud memeber of the Insomniac Club.

krwlz

The only reason I dont is because its socialy unacceptable...

Actually, I think I might have a little difficulty, not much mind you, but some, unless someone elses life (or my life) was in danger.

Could I execute someone? Probably, but Id need some convincing before I could convince myself it was the right thing to do.

matthew330

"One animal species? Well humans of course"

Ya know you've said alot. Every sentence you say i've got at least two or three things to say back too, but what it boils down to is again...you need help.

If you're not playing the devils advocate (which i kinda think you might be), you are one demented soul. So I'm gonna try to simplify this. You said in the first quote killing for any reason at all is a trait intrinsic in all living things. You have made it perfectly clear that YOU can kill anything for any reason, and tried to justify you're feelings as being again "something intrinsic in all living things." So you should have no probs coming up with another living thing that does this.

It doesn't require 3 paragraphs either. It's real simple, this is the crux of your argument. My argument is that your demented. All the 3 syllable words in the world that go nowhere is not gonna make your viewpoint any more ligitimate.

Get Help!!

manaz12

if it was between life and death, and depending on the reasons, who it is, etc... i could prob kill them