Subject: Re: suicide
From: Robbie (shok@netcom.com)
Date: Wed Mar 01 2000 - 01:22:49 EST
Jim said:
<< I think eliminating any possible motive for a single human act is a
bit absurd :) Your position is that it's impossible to for anyone, at
any time, to be motivated by this one particular impulse and be led to
this one particular act. That's a pretty big claim. >>
Let's say it again:
The word "coward" is an insult.
That's it. It's not a motive. If Seymour killed himself because he's a
coward, then Jefferey Dahmer killed and ate people because he was an
asshole. Maybe Mr. Dahmer *WAS* an asshole, but that won't hold up in
court.
If you want to insult somebody, go right on ahead. But don't call your
insult their motive.
<< I don't see buddhist monks in a frenzy when they burn themselves. I
think quite the opposite. >>
Frenzy was a bad word. But they're certainly in an altered state of
mind. As a general rule, people who are in normal states of mind do not
kill themselves. People in normal states of mind do not have visual
hallucinations, and any one of a number of things can induce the state
of mind for those hallucinations to occur, but the hallucinations don't
happen when all systems are functioning normally. Just like people
don't kill themselves when all systems are functioning normally. If you
like, re-read my post and replace "suicidal frenzy" with "suicidal
trance" or any other word you can come up with to that end. But the
point remains, something big has to go wrong upstairs before you become
capable of effectively spitting in the face of millions of years of
evolution for survival.
-robbie
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