Desert Situation

[whiteypoker]

You come across, while on vacation in mexico, an evil mexican drug lord who has ten natives lined up in a row. The natives are surrounded by henchmen toting guns. Pablo, said drug lord, walks up to you and says, "Welcome to my country. I was about to execute these natives, but as a guest, I'll give you the privelage of either shooting one where upon I'll let the other nine go, or choosing not to shoot one and I'll kill them all."

What is your answer and why?




P.S. You may assume that the drug lord is being truthful when he states he will let nine go. This really isn't a test of whether the natives deserved to die, although that might influence your decision, rather it is meant to see how you consider responsibility.

[Shurikane]

Shoot one of them myself to let the others go, and make sure that I look like I've picked the unlucky loser at random. Why? I base myself on the assumption that people, given a choice, would rather not die. The moment will certainly be painful for them, but I bet it would be less painful than knowing you will be getting killed in the next minute.

[Excel Zero]

This could be my most unpopular opinion yet!

I wouldn't do it. I mean I wouldn't shoot one.

I imagine that Pablo would be telling the truth. Now I have no idea what these natives did and to be honest up until this point none of these people affected my life. I have a hard time getting in other people's business and I find that if they were innocent, I would have a hard time picking and shooting one. Looking him in the eye and watching his demeanor change when he realizes I've made a choice to end his life. I think my issue is I look inside the big picture. How would I know if I am choosing the guy who has nothing left to live for and could care less if I shot him or if I picked the guy with a big family?

So....I guess in this rather difficult reasoning question I'd walk away

This by the way is my answer to the concrete options you've given...if I had my choice and were a good enough shot...all the drug folks would be fried

Excel

[BWS-1]

I dought I'd be given enough ammo to do what I'd want to do, but nothing is impossible, even an empty gun can be deadly.

Ok now point is ... to avoid anything to spread, I'd ultimitly want to eliminate everyone there. If I wouldn'T have been there at that place at that time, 10 native would have died and a drug lord would still roam the land. If I wouldn't kill one, what would happen is that 10 native would die, and a drug lord would still live, and I'd have that on haunting me. If I kill one, 9 might go away, but a drug lord still lives. Solution? Kill them all. It isn't really a solution, it won't bring world peace but, I can't allow to have the reputation of a saviour to those people and end up dead some time later because an other drug lord heard of the tale, no one will live to tell anything from that day anyway (well, except me ... if I'm lucky enough).

But like Excel said, too lil info, with such minimum amount of information, drug lord or not, native innocent looking people or not, we know nothing of the situation. Not even if after killing one he'd kill them all and you or whatever ... then again, if I'd be given a choise and a weapon, I'd have probably killed one, don't ask me which, I would have been able to tell only if I'd be there maybe, but I don't know, my hands would be itching to drop that weapon as soon as one would be killed and head on the neck of that drug lord in an urge to break it... But yeah, too lil info to do anything, I'd probably pass on that one and say ''Mucho gracias senior, but I'd rather not get involved, have a nice day! O and what a wonderful country it is! Viva Mexico!'' Or something like that <_<

[shadokastur]

I volunteer to shoot one myself and when he gives me the gun I first check the ammo and then fire a couple of shots into the air to make sure he gave me a working one.

Then:

A) If it works: I aim the gun at the drug lord's abdomen (biggest target) and give him the same option: either I shoot him and his men shoot me and neither of us know the outcome to this little game (knowing with Mexico's healthcare system neither of us would survive) or he lets the natives go and I leave too, WITH his henchmen's guns. Implying that either way I have no reason not to shoot him.

B) If it doesn't work: I smile and give him back the gun and ask how he expects me to do anything with faulty equpiment.

If, after this, he gives me another gun please refer back to option A.

[Graillik Tur]

Ah kastur, always the sneaky boy. What you fail to understand and was missed in the post is that Pablo has a bunch of friends with guns. You point at Pablo, get one shot off, he dies, you die, then most likely all the natives die.

Now the question here is whether or not it is better to allow the greater good (nine lives) to happen over the moral good (not killing anyone). As I see it, and this is a personal point, I ask who has the most children, the one that says more than 4, is lying. I take a random shot and let the 9 go. 9 lives is better than none.

Or you can ask which native wants to die for his comrads. That's always an option.

Salut.

[shadokastur]

In a poor country people are statistically more likely to have more children, especially in a dominantly Catholic country such as the aforementioned Mexico. I couldn't base my decision on what 'could' be a lie.

As for his henchmen I took them into account but chose to also endanger my life for the opportunity of killing him. The 'cut the head off and the body falls' philosophy. And while I most assuredly will be shot and killed by his men, the creator of the situation and the mastermind of the illegal operations will be gone as well. And, most importantly I will have only one justified death on my conscious for the short remainder of my life. I didn't expect to get out alive anyway having stumbled onto his operation...

REY

[Shurikane]

You know guys, you might want to answer the question the way it was intended to be answered. Right now, it's like someone said "Do you like fruits over vegetables or vegetables over fruits?" and everyone else replied: "Meat."

[Shandriz]

I'd rather like to say I'd go with the first option. I mean, morally speaking, I suppose it'd be a bit better to save nine lives while destroying one (even if you happen to choose the wrong one, or they're all the wrong one, or wtf ever) but...I just don't think I have the guts to actually take a life. Even for the greater good. I know I pretend to be all violent and badass, but I have too much respect for life to do it. I can't even kill spiders. xD.

[KiSin]

First of all, that is a hard descision to make. Second, Untill a situation like that arises you would have no idea what you would do.