On Suicide 论自杀

In his groundbreaking book "Suicide" (published 1897), French sociologist Emile Durkheim (uncle of French anthropologist Marcel Mauss) differentiated between four types of suicide:

• Egoistic suicide: Egoism is a state in which the ties attaching the individual to others in the society are weak. Since the individual is only weakly integrated into the society, their suicide will have little impact on the rest of the society. In other words, there are few social ties to keep the individual from taking their own life. This Durkheim saw as the cause of suicide among divorced men, and has been cited as the cause of rising teenage suicides by contemporary sociologists.
• Altruistic suicide: Altruism is a state opposite to egoism, in which the individual is extremely attached to the society and thus has no life of their own. Individuals who commit suicide based on altruism die because they believe that their death can bring about a benefit to the society. In other words, when an individual is too heavily integrated into the society, they will commit suicide regardless of their own hesitation if the society's norms ask for the person's death. Durkheim saw this as occurring in two different ways:
  • Where people saw themselves as worthless or a burden upon society and would therefore commit suicide. He saw this as happening in ancient or 'primitive' societies, but also in highly traditionalised army regiments, such as imperial or elite guards, in contemporary society.
  • Where people saw the social world as meaningless and would sacrifice themselves for a greater ideal. Durkheim saw this as happening in 'Eastern' religions, such as the Sati in Hinduism. Some contemporary sociologists have used this analysis to explain Kamikaze pilots and the cult of the suicide bomber.
• Anomic suicide: Anomie is a state in which there is weak social regulation between the society's norms and the individual, most often brought on by dramatic changes in economic and/or social circumstances. This type of suicide happens when the social norms and laws governing the society do not correspond with the life goals of the individual. Since the individual does not identify with the norms of the society, suicide seems to be a way to escape them. Examples include the spike in suicide rates during the Great Depression .
• Fatalistic suicide: Fatalism is a state opposite to anomie in which social regulation is completely instilled in the individual; there is no hope of change against the oppressive discipline of the society. The only way for the individual to be released from this state is to commit suicide. Durkheim saw this as the reason for slaves committing suicide in antiquity, but saw it as having little relevance in modern society. Contemporary sociologists have argued that modern fatalistic suicide occurs in such societies as Japan, where social mobility is so limited by social norms that individual fulfillment is impossible.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_(book)]

People take their lives for a myriad of reasons, and to rational individuals their acts are unjustified, if not simply dumb. However, to draw a metaphor from the ancient Greek, those believers of Dionysus are never able to prevent themselves from losing their senses after drinking the God's wine; Apollo's rays of wisdom and Reason will never wake them up until they turn somber on their own.

The moral of the story is: never talk reason with someone with suicidal inclinations. But what when it is Reason that propels one towards the same notions?

There have been times when I crave for my demise, as if the two ends of Life's linearity are joined to meet, and life becomes a loop. It is not understandable to many, and I have not been able to explain just what I mean. Nonetheless, at this stage, it can be said to be a kind of insight akin to that of Hemmingway's. The reason why I have stopped in my action is because such a realization of the "nothing-ness" of Life is still a passive notion highly charged with pessimism, and death cannot be validated when life is viewed with such lens.

Many people gave me the advice to "take a step back", to "take a break", to "remember the life ahead", but if we are philosophical enough in our contemplation of Existence, all of those are simply escapism from the truth of Being. What is needed is not to delude ourselves that the mundanes of life will make us forget. Rather, it is the constant quest to return to the "nothing-ness" we have realized, and to eventually develop the understanding that such is the reality. All living beings were, perhaps, not meant to see this truth. Only God should have the right. The modern man has gone too far beyond his destiny, and hence he faces the wrath of the Almighty. The fortunate thing is, many centuries ago, someone sat under a Bodhi tree and conducted a psychological experiment that eventually found a Path that would help those who have gone beyond their primate instincts. At this stage, I am trying hard to repeat Buddha's contemplation. There is no after-life, in the religious sense. Rather, one simply lives on for eternity by planting seeds of wisdom in the hearts of those he has the fate to encounter, and the seeds bloom in the network of relationships humans build with others and their environment. For someone who is able to do this, Death then becomes his or her greatest vindication of the value possessed while he or she was alive.

Hence, when viewed philosophically, suicide probably isn't the way out either. If I have had thoughts of suicide, it's because my wisdom only allowed me to stop at a certain stage of Reason. What I have yet to realize is that there is a greater world beyond the wall that I faced - a wondrous land where tea is made from clouds, and trees are grown from love. That quest to enter this heavenly solace is what I seek in the years to come.