This has pretty much been what has prevented three Suicide Bombers from succeeding. In the first case (The flight over PA on 9/11), all lost their lives to prevent a much more horrible catastrophe. The Shoe Bomber and the Underwear Bomber were both stopped (Successfully) by the passengers on the aircraft without any loss of life, yet they all knew this was possible.
I value my life, as I am certain every one of them did, yet they valued the lives of others as well, and in a situation, where to not act was to have both certain death of oneself coupled with the certain deaths of many others, almost anyone would choose to act rather than do nothing, as I would.
In fact, I believe that this is our strongest defense against Terrorism in the USA. If the suicide bombers who try to attack us discover that we are willing to die to prevent them from dying in their attempt… It will take a lot of the impetus out of them (after all, most are doing this to martyr themselves, and failure is a horrible thing to them).
I think that there are also other things that I might value more than my life. For instance I might value not creating another life more than my own life depending upon the circumstances. But, pretty much all of those things involve the sacrifice of my life for something that is greater than myself. If one thinks that they are the greatest thing on earth… well, that is going to be a lonely existence.
This has pretty much been what has prevented three Suicide Bombers from succeeding. In the first case (The flight over PA on 9/11), all lost their lives to prevent a much more horrible catastrophe. The Shoe Bomber and the Underwear Bomber were both stopped (Successfully) by the passengers on the aircraft without any loss of life, yet they all knew this was possible.
I value my life, as I am certain every one of them did, yet they valued the lives of others as well, and in a situation, where to not act was to have both certain death of oneself coupled with the certain deaths of many others, almost anyone would choose to act rather than do nothing, as I would.
In fact, I believe that this is our strongest defense against Terrorism in the USA. If the suicide bombers who try to attack us discover that we are willing to die to prevent them from dying in their attempt… It will take a lot of the impetus out of them (after all, most are doing this to martyr themselves, and failure is a horrible thing to them).
I think that there are also other things that I might value more than my life. For instance I might value not creating another life more than my own life depending upon the circumstances. But, pretty much all of those things involve the sacrifice of my life for something that is greater than myself. If one thinks that they are the greatest thing on earth… well, that is going to be a lonely existence.