Moral Dilemma Exercise

[surjimmy]

Lets say there was a time machine, and you were beamed back to when Hitler or any other Horrible person like him was 10yrs old. Now you know 100% for a fact this person is going to grow up and be responsible for the murder of 1,000's and 1,000's of people. Would you kill him? Now I know what the knee jerk reaction would be, "Hell Yes"! But think this is a 10 year old little child, you are an adult. Could you look him or her in the eye and pull the trigger?

 

[D. Hargrove]

No.

 

[okie362]

Don't think I could do it. I'd have to go back to a time when they were older. I assume that if you are building a time machine you are also intelligent enough to build it with controls (Would they be called timers?).

 

[Okie4570]

Hitler fought in ww1, surely you could help someone take better aim at him on the battle field. Who knows, maybe Hitler elemenated someone who would have become worse than him...

 

[Judi]

....unless the child has a mental illness.....I think I can correct a child, mend the ways and means of ideas, and send them off with a new seed of thought in their mind. Providing I have enough time to do this.

 

[chuter]

No. You don't know what effect it could have. Hitler was terrible, but if you kill him when he was young it's possible the world could be on a path even more terrible.
Unlimited possible futures ya know.

 

[xseler]

Just your mere presence may be enough to change that course of history. Or, maybe you could commission him to paint a series of pictures and keep him on the artist path...…….

 

[rlongnt]

Had people like that not come to power someone far worse might have filled the vacuum. Perhaps someone who wouldn’t have gotten addicted to a cocktail of amphetamines and other drugs. Someone who might not have made the same mistakes and might have won.

I don’t have an answer to the question. I would hate to think my actions could facilitate something even more evil than the worst evil the world is ever known.

 

[Okiedog]

Same question every law enforcement officer, school security guard, and armed teacher must ask themselves.

 

[John6185]

I've read where Stalin was just as bad as Hitler-even worse. Hitler was an eloquent speaker and could have a crowd int he palm of his hand-I believe he started out as a street organizer-in modern terminology.