Kilgore Trout said:
Probably not the place for it, but I really don't understand suicide. Yeah, if you believe that this world is a sham, that something better awaits us in death, then I can see the allure. If, however, this is all we get, why would offing yourself even be an option? It's not like we get to go to the back of the line to take the ride again.
Maybe I'm cynical because of all those youngsters that blow themselves up in the name of Islam. Maybe I'm tipping my hand too much about my thoughts on religion in general. Seems to me that if you take belief in an afterlife out of the equation then suicide can't be an option.
Yes I feel for the decedent's family. It must be the worst kind of shock and self-accusatory slap in the face that one can imagine. Not sure if I extend my sympathy to the decedent, though. $0.02.
I know my post is rather off topic, but I was so intrigued by your thoughts I just have to respond.
Belief in the existence of an afterlife, or at least uncertainty as to whether it exists or not, far from being an incentive to commit suicide, has always been in my opinion the very strongest deterrent. Indeed, I think it's the only deterrent.
In your post, I get the feeling that you consider the afterlife only as something better than we have here on earth, rather than something worse, or - a very common position, particularly among Christians - the possiblity of either, that is to say, heaven or hell. But the fact remains that, utilizing natural reason alone, we cannot know for sure what lies beyond the grave. Good, bad, both, we just don't know.
Given this, I should think that most people considering suicide (sane people, at least, capable of rational thought) would be smitten with a tremendous fear that they might be heading for something a lot worse than what they are escaping from. Sure, it might be better, but who's to say? The devil you know is better than the one you don't. Even if you firmly believe, for whatever reason, that you're going to a better place, what if you are wrong? If you are, you got a big problem on your hands. A "forever" kind of problem.
On the other hand, if there were some way that we could be certain that there is nothing beyond this mortal existence, then that would be the best possible comfort for someone considering suicide. The uncertainty of facing eternity in one kind of place or another would be removed, delivering complete control back into the hands of the suicide: all you have to do is pull the trigger and
you are asleep forever. This kind of control, the ability to know for sure that your pain will end when your life does, would be a tremendous consolation to those who wish to self-terminate.
You say, "
If, however, this is all we get, why would offing yourself even be an option? It's not like we get to go to the back of the line to take the ride again." Well, the problem is that you are viewing life as something fundamentally worthy of experiencing, or desirable in some way. By definition, a suicidal person wants to lay this life aside. S/he finds it, for whatever reason, excruciatingly undesirable. Far from being worried about getting in line again, such a person doesn't even like being in line this time around. One time in line is, already, one time too many.
As for sympathizing with the family, well, it's hard not to, I guess. But, the feeling I get from reading your thoughts is that you and I are likely very different people with different life experiences, because, regarding your stated lack of sympathy with the person who actually did the deed, I couldn't disagree more. I find it very easy to sympathize (empathize, maybe?) with such a person, even though I have no idea what her particular situation was, or even whether she was in good mental health and in full possession of her faculties.
Regardless of the case of this one person, in general there are so many lives out there being lived in abject misery for so many reasons, some of them not at all apparent to an outside observer, that I have a very difficult time feeling critical of those who opt out. It's not that I would sympathize with someone who kills himself over something foolish, but when I don't know the reason for it, I typically experience a feeling of some shared pain by default.
One other thing that is a pet peeve of mine (nothing in your post) is the rather patronizing tendency of many people to view suicides as people who invariably are off their rockers, or "ill" in some way, or are possessed of poor judgment or impulsivity - as though the act itself, by its very nature, is somehow irrational or unnatural. They seem to think that suicide, if considered more carefully, would never be followed through with, that it would never be something that a "healthy" or "well-adjusted" person would choose to do.
I feel very differently. Sure, there are plenty of moonbats who kill themselves, but a great many suicides are simply the result of the most elementary of all cost/benefit analyses. That is to say,
Is what I am getting out of this life worth what I am putting into it? The are numerous scenarios in which the answer is a simple "No".
And I've never liked the way in which suicide is labeled "a permanent solution to a temporary problem", either. That definition trivializes the cause of suicide by forcing it into the category of humdrum, everyday trials and tribulations - things like losing a job, being ill, etc. - that are capable of being changed. Many suicides are the result of permanent problems, things that have to do with ways in which a mentally healthy person may nonetheless view the world as a fundamentally bad and painful place. You don't have to be unbalanced or ill in any way to have been born with, or had formed in you, a mindset or mental orientation that colors everything negatively. Some people just seem to have such a way of looking at things.
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Over the years Norwood has had too many do this. God bless her family and now may she rest peacefully.
