Rev. Octopus

I have no doubt I could and would pull the trigger if my family or dear friends were threatened with serious harm. I could probably kill, as well, if I knew that doing so would keep that person from doing great harm to a great many people, like going back in a time machine and killing Hitler (ignoring any potential paradoxical havoc that could cause). There are times that I have felt an emotional desire to kill some **, but those are just emotions and I would not act on them. One person from this forum has stirred up such emotions a time or two, though they are no longer here, having either faked their own death, or died with a curse on their lips. But such hatreds are part of our reptile brain, part of what makes us human, and fortunately in most cases our pre-frontal cortex can overcome those base urges with rationality and compassion. - Rev. Octopus

I'll not bother responding to the last couple pages of posts with personal attacks taking each other out of context. I'd prefer to respond to the original post. What would I do for a million dollars? My answer would depend on my situation at the time. At this moment, I have a decent job, so does my wife, and we are relatively debt-free (aside from our house payments). At this moment, I do not NEED a million dollars. It would only be luxury. Based on that, I would not pretend to be something I am not. I would not harm anyone. I would do nothing that would, on the whole, harm society. Since that much money would be a very nice luxury (early retirement, travel the world, help a LOT of people, etc.), I would be willing to do all sorts of things I would normally not do. I would not do anything sexual with anyone else, because I value my happy marriage far higher than I do that stack of money. However, if my wife were to go along with it, I might do some unusual sexual things for the money. Let's see... I would pose nude (though I doubt many people would want to see that) or ride a bicycle naked downtown (assuming I would not be in danger of doing serious jail time). I would be willing to eat some fairly disgusting things, if it were not dangerous to my health... maybe something like balut, grubs or insects. I would urinate on any religious or sacred object or book (unless it was a rare historical artifact and urinating on it would destroy it... for example, I would not urinate on the Mona Lisa for a million dollars). Now, suppose my situation were different. If we were jobless, in serious debt, unable to afford needed food or medicine, I am sure I would be willing to do far more things against my values, in proportion to my needs. In cases of desperation, I would probably even be willing to harm others, if it meant relieving harm to myself and my loved ones. Fortunately I am not in that level of need, and hopefully our society will become more caring about those in need so that nobody would ever be put in such a desperate situation. - Rev. Octopus

That was great! Thanks for sharing. - Rev. Octopus