h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yeah I know it's probably been asked before, but this is ask h2g2 and so to be expected.

I just saw the end of an interview with a soldier on TV who said he'd prefer to "die for his country than die of old age".

It struck me what an ambivalent statement it was. I suppose you need to be in that frame of mind when you're in the army.

But what do YOU think?

Sure, I'd die for my country! Well, in the sense that I'd die to get out of it. I think the utilitarian in me might be willing to die if it would help provoke a socially just world. But that's more under the heading "What I would do for my children."

Something I find irritating is the fact that many people, as an example lets take Peter hitchens, the Mail on Sunday columnist, seem to hanker for the days when a man would die for God, Queen and Country.

Right, so it's better if we're willing to die for someone I don't think exists, an establishment I wish didn't exist, and a nation I'm ashamed of. OK.

Was the guy in question an American by chance

Actually, my experience of military personnel is that they much prefer the other cliché...

"Die for my country? No way! My job is to make the other b*****d die for his!"

Soldiers aren't trained to die, they're trained to kill, so dieing for your country is a failure in a way.

Would i die for my country? In a word - No.

I am reminded of E. M. Forster, who once said 'Given the choice of betraying a friend or betraying my country, I hope I would have the courage to betray my Country.' Or something very similar.

Same here.

Very true Blues.

Hmm.. Die for my country? No. Risk my life for my country? Quite possibly. It depends how you define 'country'. If you mean risk my life so that the people that I care for are kept out of danger then yes.

Liam.

Take a handful of soil and sand and try to sell it and nobody will give you one cent for it - I don't see why collecting several million handfuls of teh same stuff in one place and drawing a line around it and labelling it a country should make it worth dying for.

I ould if I were personally convinced that the cause I was dying for was just and worth it.

What I would hate to have been is one of those poor sods who went over the top in WW1 into a hail of machine-gun bullets because their leaders were incompetent and utterly indifferent as to their saftey and welfare.

Having said that - I suspect when someone is talking about their country in this context they are talking about their way of live, family, friends, etc. and not the physical muck we are all walking around on...

Still, no soldier I ever met wanted to die - it would rather defeat the object to have a suicidal army.

(unless of course you're writing a script for a Monty Python film ).

> Still, no soldier I ever met wanted to die -
> it would rather defeat the object to have a suicidal army.


"Lemming platoon - qui-i-i-ck march"

But seriously, folks: the risk of dying is a part of living, there is no way I'd want to up that risk to 100% on the say-so of any of the politicians we have had running the country in living memory. I guess that's why I'm not in the army.

Phil

Would I die for my country - No.
Would I die for my beliefs - Maybe?

If my country embodies my beliefs - then 'Yes, I might die for my country.'
But it sadly falls quite a way short of my beliefs.

It is interesting the relationship between the nation state and the individuals that it governs though.

Take 'our Tone' as I like to call him, saying recently that we were prepared to 'pay the blood price' for our relationship with America.
Whilst it was very nice of him to make that decision for the 58 odd million of us who he governs, I thought it very ironic that should there ever be some kind of nuclear attack on this country, he would be one of about a few hundred safely sealed in concrete bunkers hundreds of feet underground. Specifically - his speech should really have been - 'I am prepared to let you, the people, pay the blood price for my relationship with the American government'.

I wonder if I'd feel any different about dying for my country if I believed that those in charge gave a flying f**k about me or anybody else in this country for that matter?

I thinks so. If it came down to it, I`d have to. Look, I spend my days doing music, occasionally turning up to work, smoke pot, go out, meet new people, have experiences that previous generations of my family didn`t, I don`t have to believe in any religon, and to cut it short - I don`t have to do jack s**t if Idon`t want to.

But having being named after a relative who when missing (but was traced in time) in WW2. I can`t really be dismissive of the notion of dyiing for future generations. HAVING said that, If I`m just fighting for some oil, then f..k that, I`m gonna throw a huge party, get some class A,B, and C`s and invite everyone I`ve wanted to shag.

Guzdragon

Shooooooooommmmmmm!

*note to self: Do NOT accept invite to guzdragon's End of the World Shindig*

Liam.

Easy Now,our kid! Throw yer own! this is one party you wouldn`t wanna gatecrash!

If by country you mean a piece of land etc then no

If you mean a group of people who all live on the same piece of land then maybe

If you mean the ideas, principles and concepts that bind like minded people into a cohesive whole then probably yes.

Considering todays current climate, I don't think I could be ar*ed. What is there to save? The Queen? Parliament? The People? Don't like any of them much. I'm off to America if we get into any serious war. They aren't exactly gonna get defeated, no matter how awful their government is.

So die for my country? Nah. There are better things to die for. Like s

Re: Dying for future generations -
If there was an example set by the world's politicians about consideration for future generations eg. by tackling poverty, famine etc and doing something to prevent the wholesale degradation of the environment, then I might be prepared to stick my neck out and fight, even die, for a cause which had those global benefits in mind. And I'd probably fight if my life or that of my loved ones was directly threatened.

But fight/kil/die for "my country"? Against other poor sods who have volunteered (or not) to fight for theirs? When it's the politicians, dictators and religious fanatics that have created the situations in the first place?
No way.

Personally, I wouldn't die for anyone.

Not my Country, God, or even nature come to think of it. I'm just going to stick around forever until the universe ends.

Prof

Of course, much of this is perilousdly close to the line that Michael Moore has been taking recently - 'How many westerners would be prepared to fly a jumbo jet into a building for their beliefs?'