Are you a killer..? (63)

tinyfangs: I hope this thread won't be an issue, as it isn't about promoting violence, but rather realising facts about the own self.

Many people when asked this question will no doubt say NO! And they are sort of correct, but same time I believe they are also not.

There lives a killer in each and everyone of us. We are not psychopathes for this, those are a completely different ball game.. but we all I think would agree that in self defense we'd act, and some of us would also act in defense of another.

I know for certain I would not hesitate to defend a child for example, and it would not even have to be my own, and if there'd be a gun in my hand in a moment where I'd come to witness someone just about to kill a child - I'd pull the trigger with no hesitation.
Fortunately those type of situations will usually not arise in our regulated and domesticated society, and thus we tend to not spend much thought on it, but I personally feel we actually should look at this ability within us to kill, to find where our threshold for it lies.

I came to post this due to a discussion in another thread, where I put a controversial scenario forth. It was an uncomfortable scenario, as I believe because it could force us to suddenly 'relate' to the fact that there can be reasons for murder, and that we ourselves deep within carry limits and reasons that could make us react and turn into killers too. I don't think we are aware we shy away from imagining certain scenarios, but I do believe it could be an explanation why we do aso.

Self defense is something most of us will understand and accept as a reason why we could end up killing, but I'd say people carry different levels of what they by their own nature consider 'self defense'. Not as in something that could hold up in a court of law, please do not misunderstand me with this - but within the inner realms of an individual.

For example what if someone threatens our rescources? What if someone threatens our lifestyle? How much of this would we allow, before we'd begin to see it as a case of defending our self interest?

I'd say in a less stable mind, that threshold can be reached faster, and then murder can occure. Under strain, clear thought can end failing and instinct can kick in (panicks being one) which is by NO MEANS an excuse for it happening, as any stable individual should be able to control that self preserving instinct, but I personally believe it can help us to understand ourselves, and also give us tools to deal with this, if we do look at our own thresholds and imagine situation in which it may could be breached.

Not sure this makes clear sense, but I felt it worth to put up for discussion, as well as maybe an excercise for the self - a self that in our modern world rarely gets tested on this, so - how can we truly tell where our limits lie, if they do not get tested, and if we do not even spend time on looking at them?