If you could go back in time, would you stop 9/11?

fair enough....

 

If I had the power to go back in time, I would swing by the garden of Eden and stop Eve from eating the forbidden fruit...

 

Funny!

Mrs. JB: I don't think anyone should be stewing about this. We were asked a straightforward hypothetical question and it took me a millisecond to come up with my answer. It is a valid exercise because it indicates something about values. Call me selfish if you wish, but for the life of me I can't imagine why everyone doesn't answer the same way I (and others) did.

 

Why would I call you selfish? You're certainly entitled to your own opinions.

However, I don't think there is any such thing as a "straightforward hypothetical question." By it's very nature a hypothetical question is speculative and murky at best.

In addition, I certainly don't think it's a valid way to judge the character of others. We can all sit around and talk about what changes we'd make if only... The true measure of a person's character is how they live their lives on a day to day basis. And since what I see of people on this board is only a tiny fraction of their lives, I don't feel I have enough information to make any assumptions about anyone's character.

 

I said selfish because I am SURPRISED when all don't answer the same way. I don't feel selfish. I just think the correct response is completely evident.

While some hypotheticals could be, this hypothetical is not murky in my opinion. This hypothetical is speculative but still straightforward.

Answering such a questiion is INDICATIVE of values. Yes, your day-to-day observation if the ultimate measure of someone's character. Answering a hypothetical is not a way to judge the character of someone but it is an accurate part of the picture.

 

Mrs. JB -- maybe I need to clarify after thinking about it a bit.

what surprises me here is not that people said they wouldn't change history because that would screw up all of history or for some other reason....what surprises me is when someone says that essentially it was worth the loss of life for the lesson learned. that's what surprises me and bothers me, quite frankly.

would you consider murdering your best friend??? that's certainly a hypothetical...but if you told me there are conditions in which you'd really consider it i think i'd have a better glimpse of who you are than by a non-response.

 

I have two answers to this question:

1. If by stopping it, our country went after Al-Qaeda and bin Laden unlike Clinton or Bush seemed want to do, then yes, by all means, I would go back in time to stop it.

2. If by stopping it, and saving those 3,000 lives, only meant saving those 3,000 lives, but bin Laden and the terrorists were going unsearched and maybe planning an even deadlier attack, then no.

I don't care how you want to judge me, but this opened Americans eyes, most importantly, our governments eyes. If 9/11 wouldn't have happened, it could've happened at a different time when maybe 10,000 people, or 50,000 people could've been killed. It could've occured on a wider scale...the attacks could've been better coordinated, and more targets hit.

Now, I know that more terrorist attacks may occur, but I probably wouldn't trade 9/11 for our government to seemingly ignore the risk that bin Laden represented.

Wow, that's really surprising, seeing as that's how you feel about everything you believe.

 

Obviously, the answer you're looking for is "no."

But what if my best friend was brainwashed by terrorists and decided they were going to blow up the Empire State Building?

What if my best friend went crazy and had began attacking my husband?

What if we were in a car accident miles from civilization, my friend was horribly fatally injured and was in terrible pain and begged me to put and end to their misery?

Would I kill my best friend in any of these circumstances? I might. Do you think less of me now? You might. But I certainly don't think it's an accurate reflection of my character.

The beauty of the hypothetical question is that we almost never have to face the consequences of our answers.

 

Interesting topic...

This reminds me of when I was an undergrad and I was taking Ordinary Differential Equations. The textbook we were using was by Zill and Cullen and every chapter had an essay that was an application of D.E.s.

One essay in particular that I found fascinating was on Chaos Theory. The example used a story about a famous politician who goes back in time to the age of the Dinosaurs. He is very careful not to disturb anything, but he accidentally bends a blade of grass (I know what some of you are thinking - he would bend a blade of grass just by walking, but this is what it said in this essay). When he goes back to his present time, he finds that he is no longer in office. I won't bore you with how this is related to Differential Equations, but it was an interesting story. Unfortunately, the authors convienently neglected to say who the author of this story or the title of it.

This leads me to pose these 2 questions - HYPOTHETICALLY

1) If going back in time to stop 9/11 could lead to a change, whether major or minor, like in the story of the politician, would you still do it?

2) How would you be the only one that could go back in time?? What if Bin Laden knew about this capability and he went back in time to stop you?

For the record, even risking future changes to myself and family and the rest of the world, I would go back and try to stop it. However, I would think that some other tragedy would happen in time.

Also, imagine being able to go back in time and stopping all kinds of bad things from happening like:

1) MLK being assassinated
2) JFK being assassinated
3) Pearl Harbor being attacked
4) Hitler being born
etc.

But where do you stop and how would changing these things impact us today??

 

Mrs. JB -- I totally agree...if you answered yes to that question, i would immediately ask follow up questions...if you told me one of those things you listed, that would, again, be more information about you and your values.....but the assertion that how you answer a hypothetical doesn't allow you some insight into the values of another person doesn't seem to make sense to me...particularly given this little exchange.

 

Why? All hypotheticals are murky. Had this been stopped whos to say Bin Laden, or someone else, would get even more angry and have decided to blow up the Superbowl or something. Think of that. Over 50,000 would die in one sitting. It would be much worse. Not that I wouldnt want to save all those who persihed 6 months ago, but who can say what would happen.

I agree with Mrs. JB. This is kinda pointless, no need to get beat up about it. If you could go back in time once, you could do it again. If you only had one wishe granted for you, you could wish for the powers of God, and then you could do anything, or you could wish to be able to go back in time as many times as you want.

Oh, and by all accounts, the economy went south before Sept. 11th, with the recession having "officially" started in March, where recession is described as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

 

RM95 -- I understand your sentiments....but i don't think i'd trade in 1 life for the POSSIBILITY of saving 2.

 

But I think it's obvious that it's not a possibility, it's a certainty that bin Laden was going to attack us. We were very lucky that we only lost 3,000 innocent lives.

 

<b>RM95</b>: I only feel that way about things I know I'm right about... like the innocent deaths of unborn babies and victims of political terror.

<b>JayZ750</b>: Not all hypotheticals are murky and I don't think this one is. You don't want to reverse the event because something worse could conceivably happen.

 

Manny, what is really freaky is a question like : "What if you stopped 9-11 but one of the people who originally died in 9-11 lived and they became the next Hitler - etc..."

 

I wish it had never happened. Still. Simply. Life-affirming.

 

yes, i do it.

rm95 -- you do realize how successful this attack was, right??? you do realize what a big step it was for osama to orchestrate something of this magnitude, right??? they were training pilots for a while here....they coordinated planes and visas and everything else necessary to pull this off. these guys lived under our noses for a very long time, without getting caught. does osama have other tricks up his sleeve...but he was pretty darn successful in this little endeavor. I would take it away in a heartbeat if i could.