by galacticsurfer » Thu 09 Feb 2006, 09:18:24
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AmericanEmpire', 'W')hat I find totally stupid about our current society is that considering the overpopulation problem we should support as many people as we can who want to end it all.
Instead we prolong life as long as possible with as many people as possible, through medical technology to the point of even hooking people up to machines when there bodies have no way of surviving on their own.
We are willing to be humane and put down a pet when its in incurable pain but not a human. Its ridiculous.
I'd guess it goes back to valuing human life over anything else in the natural world. The whole reason we are in this stupid mess.
My wife is a nurse and worked in Russia as a nurse for 15 years then here in Germany in anursing home for several years. She noticed a difference in the treatment of patients between the two countries. In the west in general they go to every extreme to extend life beyond any logical, sensible historical nnorm to the detriment of all involved financially and otherwise ad absurdum. In Russia they would not be plugged in or put on a drip permanently even though basically unconscious. People are allowed to die there. there is no money or time or amoral hypocrisy for such a load of BS(excuse my anger here) while children and others are going hungry.
Regarding suicide generally, I saw Last Samurai on the weekend on DVD and near the end the "last Samurai" character commits Hara kiri with his sword with help of Tom Cruise character in his role as friend. Tom Cruise finally gave in that suicide in this sense of killing yourself as being an honorable act was ok, maybe not for himself, but in other cultures. I think moral decisions are culturally dependent and should be judged so. As above we see how Russia differs from the western countries. I believe a generation ago in western countries the whole hospital attitude to death would have been similar to that in Russia and will be the same again after hardship really hits post PO in a number of years. In Japan lots of kids killed themselves in the 50s as they made a very hard adjustment to the new reality of competition with western economies. the same has hit them again in the 90s and 00s as 30% of all employees are in temp positions and previously there were only life long positions. Women in Japan often walk into the sea with their children or desperate people disappear into the woods and lay there to die. Honour is an important concept there. People have a hard time unloading on each other in Japan I think. They do not talk about their feelings like we do as this is not a tradition so it is just easier to end it all quietly. Maybe that is the problem with suicide-lack of contact with others to unload our problems on. Beyond unbearable permanent pain there is probably no real reason for suicide beyond the immediate despair of loss of children or a loved one or a major catastrophe which comes completely unexpectedly.
We are all getting psychologically prepared here for PO and suicide seeems to be not the thing to do for someone who is psychologically prepared and has support form others. Loss of honor as in last samurai film only counts in the exceptional situation where you alone lose everything. In a great depression post PO we will all lose everything so suicide is no option. Suicide in that case would show cowardice in the face of difficulty. We just have to learn to support each other better emotionally.