Would You Sacrifice Your Life for Your Beliefs?

A Next Level Human Thought Experiment on Values and Moral Courage"

Standing For Something Means Sacrificing For Something

I want to present my take on a somewhat uncomfortable, or controversial topic. It might get you a little prickly and have you feeling at odds with me. Remember, our cultural selves make us combative when we are presented with ideas that differ from our own. That is the very reason I am presenting this thought experiment. The entire point is to move this discussion into an area that may challenge us a bit. All I ask is you just sit back and open yourself up to my point of view. I don’t want or need you to agree with me. The point is to get you thinking deeply about the things in your life you would consider lines in the sand—the things you stand for, would fight for, bleed for, scar for, and even die for. Ready? Here we go.

Imagine you live alone; you are sound asleep, and someone breaks into your house. You are woken up out of bed as someone enters your room. You own a handgun, so you quickly grab it and find yourself face to face with an intruder, your gun on him and his gun on you. You have the drop on him and can get a shot off first. Imagine this is a game of certain death for one of you. Whoever takes the first shot gets to live, and the other will die. There is no talking your way out of it, no shooting in the legs, and no disarming the intruder in this imaginary scenario. One of you has to go; either you kill the other person, or they kill you. Those are the only two possible outcomes. So what do you do?

Before you answer that question, here is another slightly different but equally disturbing scenario. Imagine you go to prison. Not one of those plush prisons for the rich and wealthy, but rather a full-scale maximum-security penitentiary with the most hardened, dangerous, and callous criminals on the planet. It’s the kind of place where violence is certain, and you need to choose a team for protection. Are you black, white, or Hispanic? You probably need to think about that because in this place it does not matter what your views are or who you think you align with. You are in the most base-level place on the planet, and in this place, the only choice you have for survival is to align with those who look like you. What do you do? Which violent group would you align with, knowing the protection of the group comes with the requirement you become a soldier, take orders, and perpetrate violence on others? Would you participate in this violent culture?

Maybe you feel this is a silly thought experiment. Perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “Of course I would, Jade. If I wanted to live, I would have to defend myself.” I understand this sentiment completely. I don’t even disagree with it per se. But for me, the answer to both these scenarios is I would not participate in either scenario.

If I am the only person involved and it’s my life or another’s, I would rather be killed than kill. I would rather be shanked and killed in prison than become a killer. I would rather be shot and killed than be the one who took another’s life. I don’t share this with you as a way of posturing or pretending I am somehow morally superior for my position. In fact, I realize my position is not a very logical one. For me to pretend my position is better than yours would be a cultural tactic. Remember, cultural types see teams in scenarios. They would hear me say I would rather be killed than kill and assign me into a group. If they were on the opposite side of that, meaning they would rather kill than be killed, then I become a point of opposition to their opinion.

I don’t own a gun. I don’t want to own a gun. I likely will never own a gun. Not because I think gun owners are bad or morally inferior to me. I simply don’t want to own a gun because I have decided part of my code of honor is non-violence. I would rather be killed in prison than become a killer in prison. Again, this does not mean I am right and anyone who sees it differently than me is wrong. I have just decided that for me, I stand for non-violence.

This is a quintessential part of a next-level human mindset. They operate from an honor code—a set of principles they believe they can be proud of and also betters the world. In determining this code of conduct for myself, I ask myself, “If I were on my deathbed, what would I be proud I stood for? What is the type of human I would want to be?” For me, the answer is I want to be the type of human who was courageous enough to do good and be the light even when everything else around me was dark, evil, or chaotic. I want to make my life about being an experience of love and an example of good for others.

Not only that, I want to act in the world in a way that if every single human acted in the exact same way, we would all live in a better world. If everyone in the world adopted the mindset of shooting first, we would live in a pretty heinous existence, in my opinion. However, if instead everyone would rather be killed than kill, well, then murder would be impossible in that world. That is the world I personally want to stand for.

Next Level Humans make these calculations. They do not filter their answers regarding the questions above through the lens of the Second Amendment or their own personal needs of survival. Instead, they filter these questions through the lens of who they want to be in the world and what they are committed to seeing the world become. I want to live in a world where people are able to live their lives free from violence or oppression. I want to live in a world where murder simply does not exist. Therefore, I will commit myself to not perpetrating violence or allowing oppression.

Now, you may see this as problematic. I certainly don’t see this as a simple answer. After all, defending myself and giving my life for my principles is one thing. But let’s up the ante on this thought experiment. What if others were involved? Would I stand by and let a loved one be killed? If necessary, would I kill or commit violence to protect a loved one or the sovereignty of another human? The answer to that second question is yes. Not intentionally, of course, but I would defend myself or others from violence in a defensive manner. I would not have the intent to kill, but it is possible that could occur. So, I would kill if it were necessary to save a loved one or even a stranger. If I were walking past an alley and saw you being beaten, I would step in. If I had to fight your attacker and perhaps even accidentally kill or be killed, I would.

For me, my honor code dictates that I will not perpetrate violence on another except to defend myself from violence from that person. I would rather they kill me than I kill them, but I would defend myself and do my best not to kill them in the process. So it’s really about intention. My honor code says I would never purposely take a life, and in the extreme example above with no way to defend myself, I will take the bullet. But I would defend and fight to save a life, mine or another’s. I would kill only if it was an unavoidable consequence, not as an intentional act.

Why is this conversation important? It is critical because being a next-level human is not easy. It’s also not about trying to be a saint or guru. There is no requirement to be kind. There is a time and a place to defend, erect boundaries, and adopt protective postures. It is also a way of being that comes with sacrifice and responsibility. Because Next Level Humans integrate self and other simultaneously, questions that deal with our individual behavior can never be divorced from how those behaviors impact other people. These are questions we need to think about in a very real way. And the only way we can make sense of such hard questions is through first principles. I will cover first principles in another post on this substack, but I wanted to introduce the concept here. You were just introduced to one of mine—non-violence.