When should you still fight a losing battle?

Question

Take this as broadly as you like.
Those struggling here to cope with the rising tide of bad English in questions and answers, through to those who have points of principle they would hold and physically fight for if they were the only person on Earth to hold the view.

"I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade...
...And I to my pledged word am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous. " Alan Seeger

Answer 1

A lot of the answers here speak of fighting losing battless, because in their mind, there may be a chance to win. But, fighting when you know for a fact that it is a losing battle, is our question. In that case, I would only fight the losing battle if to die is better than to survive. Sometimes, death is better than mere survival. 1) There are some life conditions that are totally unbearable. Yes, worse than death. 2) There are also instances where we feel that our losing the battle, our death, will leave a message to others, and in time, will have positive impact on our progeny. We are all programmed to want survival, so it takes a deliberately conscious internal battle when you fight what you know is a losing battle. But humans are more than mere instinctual creatures.

Answer 2

I think in life you should pick your battles, there is a practicality factor involved. One can fight argue, fight, and dispute over the smallest thing and lose friends and appear foolish. It is surely better to let the small things roll over you and reserve your strength for things that matter. In addition you can increase your joy in life that way.

There is a quote from a medieval Christian figure that is used also by Alcoholics Anonymous as a creed that one should change the things you can, accept the things you can't and have the wisdom to know the difference, but most of the people whose memory survives their own lifetime find their immortality by taking on the big fights that everyone else says are hopeless.

If you can find the red line that you cannot cross and stick to it, in the end you will be more at ease with yourself and have more respect from others, even if they disagree with you. You can expect to be uncomfortable or unhappy in your immediate situation from time to time, but you should aim for satisfaction over the long term.

Answer 3

Its all about morals, ethics and motives. I would fight a losing battle, if it was something that needed to be seen for what it really is and if i truely believed in it. I don't know how broad you really wanted people to go but I have had one of these battles. I have stood my ground on and faced odds that one could easliy tell where to much for me to handle, but I still stood my ground. I have actually fought to prtect what I believe in and to ensure that someone I care for was safe. I was out with some friends on night and another group had been cuasing trouble with everyone at the park the night and we had confronted them(they where from out of town) and we told them how things went around here and that no one wanted any trouble. As the night went on the other group was still cuase in problems. They where a group of egostistical jocks form another town about 25 mile away and thught that they could just do what they pleased any where they wanted. Now me and my friends are punk who are not lifters or anything like that. We like to chill and listen to music. So afer a few more hours i notcied that one of my friends had gone missing and it was not like him to disappear for mor ethe a few minutes with out saying something. Then a young girl ran up to us and told us that aparently my firend had gone to confront the jocks again and was now getting beaten up for confronting them again. So we run up and true ot the girls word he is getting beaten up. Not one to let my friends get hurt while I'm there i quickly jump in and begin to fight the jocks off of him. After they wher eoff one of the jocks come after me and he had to be 80 lbs. heavier then me, and we beagn to fight. He kept knocking me down and i kept getting back up becasue I knew that I had to stand up for what I believed and we continued to fight. In th end I had actually one. He had done nothing more then ruogh me up and I had broken his nose and his wrist. As we where fight I though that I'll be lucky to limp away after this but I knew I had to try.

So will fight a losing battle cuase sometimes you have to try. Even if there is only aslim chance of victory you still have to try. Losing is better then giving up.

Answer 4

when it brings you a larger victory in another place or when it preserves your honor.

if in a boxing match and you are losing, completing the match and losing will preserve your honor. quitting will bring you shame.

if in war, it may be required of you to fight and kill as many of the enemy as you can to hold off their advance for enough time to let your comrades regroup later. this may require you to die.

Answer 5

You should still fight a losing battle when giving up would make you loose your self-respect.

Answer 6

Anytime my morals, integrity are being attacked the fight goes on to it's logical conclusion.

Answer 7

When the fight is about something that matters more than mere life itself for you.

Answer 8

When you are between a rock and a hard place.
When your pride is at stake.

Answer 9

Whenever giving up would cause you more pain than losing would.

Answer 10

lol, martyrs for grammar.

god, there are better causes.