Worth Dying For? Worth Fighting For?

There is a difference between "worth dying for" and "worth fighting for."

Something is worth dying for if we believe the person or cause is precious beyond expression. We die for things we love. We die for things that we can't imagine living without. We give our lives in desperate hours when all other hope is lost, all other options have been tried, or when time runs out. The martyrs blood wets the mortar used to build a better world.

"Worth fighting for" can mean a few things. If by fighting we metaphorically mean struggling, then anything worth dying for is worth fighting for. But if by fighting we mean actual fighting, violence, and killing, then we have something completely else.

To kill for a cause is to say that the life of the individual we are killing is less valuable than our mission. It is to cast away the worth of another for the sake of what we consider greater than them. It is to fail creatively, to throw away the hopeful project of vision, and to live in a bitter world of zero sum scenarios.

I contend many things are worth dying for. Our loved ones. The fate of the environment. Justice for all people. Attention for the unattended. Hope, healing, and mercy.

I simultaneously contend that few, IF ANY, things are worth killing for. I cannot imagine the road to a "better" world paved with the bodies. I do not believe justice can ever be achieved without mercy. No life, however vile it may appear to us, can ever be cast off because we have plans.