Kill or be Killed

A popular saying, and the plot of hundreds if not millions of dramas around the world.  When most real people say it, or think it it doesn't mean a thing, and dramas don't count except as dramas. I was just watching NCIS, the characters were busy in a firefight blowing each other away. Just a thought, have you ever noticed in these shows, they never care about misses or ricochets, and the bullets never pass through and kill anyone else? A beautiful example of kill or be killed, but not real, so it doesn't count.

I'm not talking about protecting your family or anyone else, that's a different conversation completely,  now it's just you, kill or be killed.  Have you ever really thought what you'd do if someone held you at gun point?  Oh, I forgot, and you hold them at gun point.  Do you kill him, or her first and save your life? Something to think about.  How about knife point?  Or baseball bat point?  Leadpipe point?  Now it's getting messy. I shoot you and you shoot me, a relatively clean death, but stabbing each other to death, or beating each other with bats or pipes? That's dirty and bloody, not to mention painful as all get out.  But if it was kill or be killed, and he, or she, was swinging a lead pipe, what would you do? Pick up a pipe, 2x4, or piece of rebar and kill him, or her, before you're beat to death? Would you run? I would if I could, but let's say you can't run, you're trapped in a deadend alley, or you're surrounded by his, or her, friends, or you're the attacker not the attacked, or it's a duel, or whatever, so it's fight or die. What would you do?  Here's another thought, maybe it's your destiny, to be killed. Maybe it's your destiny to kill. That's a whole other can of worms.
When I was a kid there's no question, I'd maybe have been killed but would have taken him, or her, with me if at all possible. I'd have tried to talk my way out of it, or run if I could, but if push came to shove I'd have killed to avoid being killed.  But here's the interesting thing, over the years, my studies of religeon, Buddhism in particular, learning about reincarnation, the various planes of existence, astral travel, the world being illusion, a dream or a nightmare, has changed my perspective. I like to think I've evolved from that kid.

Mohatma Gandhi

I've seen the movie Gandhi several times, and the parts that stick in my mind are when the Mahatma allowed others to strike and beat him, rather than do harm to them, and alternatively when the Hindu and Moslems killed each other with any excuse.  Don't misunderstand, I'm not claiming to be on Gandhi's level, I doubt I could do what he did, and suspect I'd revert to the kid I was. But I'd like to believe I could do it and would allow myself to be killed, rather than taking a life to save mine. So is my evolution in this life, or the next, or a hundred down the line? Or just a figment of my imagination?   It's an interesting question...

Lee Murray