What you're passionate about and what you'll die for are not necessarily the same things. It depends on the situation. We can talk all we want about hypotheticals, but no one knows for sure what they'll die for until the actual situation itself is upon them.

And then they find out.

Some people, of course, are so damn proud that if they've openly said, "I will die for -----------, and then are confronted with that actual situation...well, they'll die for it out of sheer pride, because they damn well SAID they would! And they'd rather DIE than admit they might have been mistaken. This isn't so much a case of idealism, in my opinion, as it is a case of terminal stubborness, insecurity, and absolute unwillingness to alter any statement one has made.

One can see the same impulse behind most of the long-running arguments that crop up here on the political threads and other contentious subjects like that.

And then there are those who would rather die than stop talking. ;-D They----URK!!!