Slightly Interesting Views On Ponder-Worthy Philosophical Prompts

Die w/warning or w/out one?

9. "Would you want to know you are going to die before hand or die suddenly without warning?"

Ibis: Personally, I have enough idiotic things to worry about without having to deal with knowing I am going to die a whole day before I actually drop dead. Let's assume that every person knew that they were going to die the day before they did. You know what kind of incentive that would give so many people to do things just because they know that they'll day the next. It would be total bloody anarchy. Crime rates would shoot up because, when faced with death, people can go a bit crazy. In a popular book, Before I Fall, this is clearly demonstrated. In the book she does quite a few things that one wouldn't normally do(in her defense I believe that each new remake of the day wasn't ever going to replace the actual day she died) such as wear a choice outfit to school, do some things with a male teacher, and steal her mum's credit card to go buy a dress. However, she does end of finally dying after she shoves a girl she bullied out of the way of an oncoming vehicle, but it took her quite a few days before that occurred.

So, what I am saying is is that if people were told they would die the next day, you'd really have to worry about what they would do. Yes, many in this world are all great and good and wouldn't do anything bad besides eat too much chocolate and have too much fun, but that really can't be helped. What you would have to worry about would be the loons out there who are already half gone. There are people out there who are only contained from doing bad things by the fact that they would have to pay for them. Now, let's assume these people find out that they may do whatever they like for in one day they'll be gone to where no one one Earth can touch them. You have just taken away their reason to not do wretched things. So, you end up with a number of shootings, bombings, whatever they desire, simply because they know that there won't be anything anyone could do about it because hey, they're dead anyway.

In all honestly, I think that you could tell whether a person's lived or not by how they spend their last day. The best people who live the best lives probably won't do anything out of the ordinary, simply because they know they wouldn't want to live their life any other way. Personally, I feel that one should always be ready to die(I mean, be ready to accept the fact that you might die any second) but not let that effect you in a negative or drastic way.

I would bet my Lord of the Rings Frodo key-chain that most of the people reading this would not want this to be their last day(unless there were finals tomorrow or something). Most of you would probably want at least one more day to do all the things you've never done, or wanted to but never had the courage.

In all honesty I think I would be quite content with my life if I were to drop dead right now, but that's merely because I'm an antisocial nerd with one friend and no goals bigger than day to day things, like getting that section of psychology done or trying to find a reason to play Shadow or War even though the first one's way better(my views may change). So one could almost argue that I never really had a life to begin with. Ooooooo that should be a question: What does it mean to actually live. Hmph.

Now isn't that the winning question. Find an answer to that and you could run the world. Boom, incentive for living.

Risu: This question depends on your age. If I was a minor or retired with my things in order at the time of death, then I would say I want to die without warning. On the other side of that, if I was married with kids at the time, I would definitely want some warning so I could try and get as many things done as possible so my family wouldn't have to worry about them. It truly depends on the situation. How many people are relying on you financialy, how much debt you have or any companies you would need to name a successor for. If there are things you have left undone or not. There is no good blanket statement we can use to answer this question.

While I agree with Ibis on the point that it would be anarchy if people knew when they would die, most of the people who would act irresponsibly are minors, or young people close to that age.

What Ibis forgot to mention is that so many legal battles over content of wills could be ended before they had a chance to begin. Families wouldn't have to worry about paying off so much debt if those about to die knew about it and took proper measures from there.

This one honestly boils down to personal preference and situation, knowing could be a heavy burden but ignorance could end up costing those you love.