4 ms·
> Aaron committed suicide because depression is a disease. Aaron made a very unfortunate choice. Jeff is right in that we lost an amazing person… someone whom w
by funthree 14y ago
> Aaron committed suicide because depression is a disease. Aaron made a very unfortunate choice. Jeff is right in that we lost an amazing person… someone whom we all should have helped. But I can guarantee that Aaron wasn’t thinking of software or what his death would mean to our community when he made his decision. All he wanted to do was stop the pain.
I realize this is a touchy subject for lots of people and I dont mean to offend anyone. However, I feel obligated to advocate that Jeff's reasoning may have been that "Aaron was not really depressed, it as a mental and moral choice, he was already playing with all of his cards so it was a strategy" -- If Aaron didnt leave some last words stating his intentions it is hard to say for sure, isnt it? There are many people in human history outside of Christianity who have committed suicide on moral grounds[1] and while I honestly have NO IDEA which way it went, speculating strongly on either perspective seems unwise. There is a wide range of reasons why someone would do something like that. One of them is definitely mental illness and depression, one far less likely reason is the case for honor and morality -- e.g. to continue to strike the enemy and strip the enemy of their ability to attain victory no matter what must be sacrificed of ones self. Since Aaron was already playing with what he deemed "his life" some amount of mental illness could have pushed him over the edge. It could have been one, the other, or a combination of the two. I have no idea which and I dont think anyone really does, maybe Aaron did not even know. But as far as I have read all of the possibilities are on the table... Jeff was reasoning that no matter what the punishment, if the intention is to show that a law is immoral the person breaking the law should go through with being punished by the system to respect the law and have it changed. Since Aaron didn't do that, that is why he went "off the rails"
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seppuku
- danso 14y agoIf "it's hard to say for sure", then one wonders what the point of writing an essay comparing the suicidal act to that of rage quitting a video game.
- rys 14y agoIt uses language that people can relate to and lets the man express his feelings in the best way he knows how. The article was likely a true catharsis for Atwood.
- InclinedPlane 14y agoSpeculation is unnecessary, we know he was depressed, for example: http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/verysick