[nonesuch]

I'd be willing to settle for people not ridiculing the concept as baseless or a "waste".

Fair enough. I intended no ridicule, just a mild prompt. I would feel ashamed to dishonor anyone who gave their life for something they felt was greater than themselves.

[JRS1]

How would you make that determination JRS?

I guess on a case by case basis. If I could see a clear threat to my country and its people I would, if it was say a repeat of the Gulf wars I would say no.

Out of interest, would you be more inclined to defend Israel or the US if under an existential threat? Im not Jew baiting btw, Id be dissapointed if you said the US.

[Ter]

I have no country that I call mine. The one I was born in is not the same as the one my parents came from, and those were two different countries also. The country I live in is definitely not to be considered my homeland. And my official homeland, Israel, is not a country I would like to live in. I would therefore not die or kill for any country.

I would kill or die for my close family but that is another matter.

[Quantum]

Only self-defence and anti-imperialism is a legitimate reason to die for your country due to other alternatives being much worse. Dying for some BS like oil under the guise of liberty is retarded.

[Drlee]

Anti-imperialism?

Define that please.

[Donna]

Societal evolution has two world war strikes against it in the game of ruling life as we know it. Don't start swinging strike three into play to save symbolism over substance in the philosophies of mind over matter, matters most.

Just a humble warning to those that believe intellect is above instincts when physically contained by them(instincts functioning).

This smells like thickly veiled anti-semitism.

[Igor Antunov]

Family and friends. Countries are irrelevant on a personal basis.

[Potemkin]

This smells like thickly veiled anti-semitism.

[youtube]DaPBhxXhprg[/youtube]

[AuContraireVoltaire]

I was in the British army and my decision to join was never a case of wanting to fight for my country. It was, like with most people who are young a stupid like I was, about money, job security, opportunity for travel, and medical benefits.
Joining in 2004 meant that I was aware I would have to serve an operational tour within 2 years of passing phase 1 training, but it wasn't like the beginning of All Quiet on the Western Front it was just seen as an inevitable hazard for the perks of the job.

Now I suffered a mishap and was medically discharged before having to serve in a combat role abroad. I see now why the minimum age for enlistment is so low. It is far easier to indoctrinate young, impressionable minds that still haven't undergone a crystallization of independent thought and critical thinking.

Anyway I would only fight or die for my country when it is generally under threat of extinction,or at threat of being violently coerced into becoming something harmful and something that goes against everything I hold dear. But I would do the fighting in the name of my fellow man not so much in aid of the polity.

[R_G]

It is all based on circumstance. Many variables.

For example, a man with a family may be less inclined to put himself at risk due to concern over how his family will continue without him or how his children will be raised. On the other hand another man in the same situation may be more inclined to put themselves at risk due to protecting his family and the belief that if he dies at least his genes go on. Then there's the man with no family.

I probably wouldn't put myself at risk at the present time, preferring to hide out in seclusion instead.

[SecretSquirrel]

I wouldn't do either one. No country is worth dying for and nothing at all is worth killing for.

[Oxymoron]

Wow that is insane Squirrel. Not even for your own family? Not to save your own life?

[Drlee]

I wouldn't do either one. No country is worth dying for and nothing at all is worth killing for.

Spoken like a true victim.

[SecretSquirrel]

Self-defence is not an abstract philosophy or an ideology. Killing/dying for "your nation" (or any other Cause XYZ) is what my comment was in reference to.

[Drlee]

Self-defence is not an abstract philosophy or an ideology. Killing/dying for "your nation" (or any other Cause XYZ) is what my comment was in reference to.

See the problem with that is that you don't get to decide. If you define fighting for your country as "self-defense" then you didn't really answer the question. If you think that you can unilaterally defend yourself against an organized invader then you are that victim I was referring to.

[LEBANON]

hmmmm.....i would answer as yes ....
if anything happened to my country ...even if it didn't touch my family and friends but it will touch my people and if i can even help little bet in stopping that i will do best i could....
and in the other hand if i just left my country and it went dawn ......guilt and sadness will probably kill me latter on...
and i am very happy with the life i have had so far so i guess there is many things far more important than just me to think about ...

[neopagan]

It’s one thing to say what you would fight and die for, on an Internet Forum, and quite another to go out and do either. Life is full of grim irony. Most people have no idea how they would react in such circumstances. In the past we have seen some fighters become pacifists and the pacifists fighters. Likewise is true of heroes and villains.
History shows it takes half a war to just to get rid of the incompetents. It may appear to have logic and closure on the History Channel, but for most people, fighting and dying for their cause will just be part of a series of monumental fuck-ups that leave them shitting their pants while bleeding to death in a ditch.

[KlassWar]

It’s one thing to say what you would fight and die for, on an Internet Forum, and quite another to go out and do either. Life is full of grim irony. Most people have no idea how they would react in such circumstances.

You don't really understand hatred, then.

Someone who truly hates the enemy with all his mind and all his heart and all his soul is quite likely to be willing to face death in order to harm them. I'm blessed with this kind of all-consuming hatred. I hate right-wingers, class enemies and the authorities WAY, WAY more than I could ever possibly love my own life, even if I was somehow able to love it at all.

And getting killed is something we get little control over (someone else tends to do it for his own reasons), so we might as well not worry overmuch about it.

[neopagan]

Dear KlassWar, perhaps life will give you an opportunity to prove your elegant theory.

[Technology]

I would not die or kill for my country in of itself, but it's plausible that in the process of killing or dying for ideas that I would end up defending a geopolitical entity by proxy. There are very very few ideas I would be willing to kill for, of course, so that is unlikely in any case.