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As much as I feel for this poor guy I can't help but feel that this article is glamorising suicide. Suicide is a selfish (IMO cowardly) act and I'm sure his fa

As much as I feel for this poor guy I can't help but feel that this article is glamorising suicide. Suicide is a selfish (IMO cowardly) act and I'm sure his family will suffer for the rest of their lives because of it.

ckuehl 12y ago
While I understand the point that you're trying to make, I think that characterizing suicide this way is unhelpful. It ignores the fact that most of the people who end up committing suicide are deeply sick, and does nothing but make these ill people feel further disconnected from society. Suicide and depression are incredibly complex issues, and these kind of oversimplifications don't help anyone.
mb_72 12y ago
Making such generalisations is dangerous; for example, suicide when one is terminally ill and in terrible pain could be seen by many as the sensible thing to do.
- omgmaouz 12y ago
  Yes I agree there may be times where suicide seems preferable to life in the cases you mentioned. My issue is with this article As far as I can tell this man wasn't definitely depressed. It seems he was just unhappy with his situation and chose to take the easy way out. There are others who have committed suicide at that factory but of course they aren't poets...
  - algorithmsRcool 12y ago
    Since he took the rather bold step of actually ending his own life I would think that his outlook on life was sufficiently bleak to warrant at more empathy than that. Regardless of if he was clinically depressed or just very unhappy, are both not tragic? Please re-read his words and decide again if his plight was shallow-hearted. "...Every time I open the window or the wicker gate I seem like a dead man Slowly pushing open the lid of a coffin." -------- "...I want to stand up more than anyone else But my legs won’t cooperate My stomach won’t cooperate All the bones of my body won’t cooperate I can only lie flat In this darkness, sending out A silent distress signal, again and again Only to hear, again and again The echo of desperation."
sroerick 12y ago
Was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi a selfish and cowardly act? Is it cowardly and selfish to continue using these products? Do you have any kind of exit strategy or utopian vision where everyone, even Foxconn workers can afford a fashionable new iPhone? In 100 years, we've gone from using slaves for labor to using machines built by wage slaves for labor, mostly because using slaves for labor makes us feel too guilty. Many would call that selfish and cowardly. I don't endorse suicide, but I don't think it helps anyone to reduce a complex and heartbreaking situation like this into a simple othering.
- omgmaouz 12y ago
  I think his parents/siblings would have wished he had never committed suicide. Although it seems there is no end of politicians willing to ride on his act and use it as a source of legitimacy.
  - shawabawa3 12y ago
    > I think his parents/siblings would have wished he had never committed suicide. That seems selfish to me. He has to suffer so they don't have to?
vegardx 12y ago
People who take their lives do it because they feel like that is the only thing they still have control over. You can't even put yourself in that mindset even if you truly wanted, which makes it a little strange to make such a statement about suicide. I'm not sure if we read the same article.

ckuehl 12y ago

While I understand the point that you're trying to make, I think that characterizing suicide this way is unhelpful. It ignores the fact that most of the people who end up committing suicide are deeply sick, and does nothing but make these ill people feel further disconnected from society. Suicide and depression are incredibly complex issues, and these kind of oversimplifications don't help anyone.

mb_72 12y ago

Making such generalisations is dangerous; for example, suicide when one is terminally ill and in terrible pain could be seen by many as the sensible thing to do.

omgmaouz 12y ago
Yes I agree there may be times where suicide seems preferable to life in the cases you mentioned. My issue is with this article As far as I can tell this man wasn't definitely depressed. It seems he was just unhappy with his situation and chose to take the easy way out. There are others who have committed suicide at that factory but of course they aren't poets...
- algorithmsRcool 12y ago
  Since he took the rather bold step of actually ending his own life I would think that his outlook on life was sufficiently bleak to warrant at more empathy than that. Regardless of if he was clinically depressed or just very unhappy, are both not tragic? Please re-read his words and decide again if his plight was shallow-hearted. "...Every time I open the window or the wicker gate I seem like a dead man Slowly pushing open the lid of a coffin." -------- "...I want to stand up more than anyone else But my legs won’t cooperate My stomach won’t cooperate All the bones of my body won’t cooperate I can only lie flat In this darkness, sending out A silent distress signal, again and again Only to hear, again and again The echo of desperation."

sroerick 12y ago

Was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi a selfish and cowardly act? Is it cowardly and selfish to continue using these products? Do you have any kind of exit strategy or utopian vision where everyone, even Foxconn workers can afford a fashionable new iPhone? In 100 years, we've gone from using slaves for labor to using machines built by wage slaves for labor, mostly because using slaves for labor makes us feel too guilty. Many would call that selfish and cowardly. I don't endorse suicide, but I don't think it helps anyone to reduce a complex and heartbreaking situation like this into a simple othering.

omgmaouz 12y ago
I think his parents/siblings would have wished he had never committed suicide. Although it seems there is no end of politicians willing to ride on his act and use it as a source of legitimacy.
- shawabawa3 12y ago
  > I think his parents/siblings would have wished he had never committed suicide. That seems selfish to me. He has to suffer so they don't have to?

vegardx 12y ago

People who take their lives do it because they feel like that is the only thing they still have control over. You can't even put yourself in that mindset even if you truly wanted, which makes it a little strange to make such a statement about suicide. I'm not sure if we read the same article.