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This is easy to explain. ‘Death of despair’-related suicides, which are the kind that have been rising in most developed countries for the past few decades, are
by sldksk 5y ago
This is easy to explain. ‘Death of despair’-related suicides, which are the kind that have been rising in most developed countries for the past few decades, are overwhelmingly a matter of people feeling stagnant or hopeless in their socioeconomic circumstances. Note drug-related issues are very often, if not usually, downstream from those socioeconomic issues.
And the answer is: when the rest of society slows down, suddenly those who couldn’t keep up don’t feel so behind.
The only reason this comes as a surprise to so many people is that capitalism suggests that all progress is inherently good with no contingencies, or it draws a binary between progress and regression. Associated with that is American hyper-individualism. Ask a Marxist, for example, and they will offer an understanding of society which centers those who reproduce it, and along with that a sophisticated interest in theories of alienation and the role alienation plays in a person’s relations to their society. For a Marxist, these statistics would have been expected.
- QuixoticQuibit 5y ago> And the answer is: when the rest of society slows down, suddenly those who couldn’t keep up don’t feel so behind. Well said. This goes beyond even the socioeconomic causes of suicide that you mentioned and surely includes people with depression, (social) anxiety disorders, etc.
- mewpmewp2 5y agoAs an anecdotal data point, I have social anxiety, and depression diagnosed and I have been feeling relieved by the whole thing. Going to office etc, left me with constant worries and thought cycles, energy spent on analysing and overthinking social situations. Now there's just video calls/chat messages I have to worry about and there's fewer attack vectors for worries there. Same with random/events parties happening, even with friends I never felt very comfortable attending. Now I always had the perfect excuse to just stay at home.
- wildpeaks 5y ago> when the rest of society slows down, suddenly those who couldn’t keep up don’t feel so behind. Exactly, and I'd expect them to rise once things go back to "normal" because those who were already in a bad situation before Covid will rightfully feel left behind once more.
- ergot_vacation 5y agoI wouldn't say "capitalism" so much as "run-away capitalism", and the marxist stuff was probably where your downvotes came from. But that aside I agree, and this was more or less what I was going to post. Perhaps unlike you, I do generally like "progress" and believe that it "lifts all ships." But in the past several decades, this has become less and less true, for a variety of reasons. And fundamentally, you have to be sure most of your society has the basics before getting wrapped up in ever-increasing wild dreams of the future. For a little bit, those who were getting left behind didn't feel their disenfranchisement quite so painfully. I wonder if we'll have a nasty surprise when things crank back to full power again.