Originally Posted by
Gerbel
I stumbled upon this forum googling the phrase "why suicide makes perfect sense". Seriously interesting thread :) This will be a rather long post, but I have a lot to say.
I advocate suicide as a human right. Noone can know better than the individual if life is worth continuing. Some people argue that this is only valid when serious physical illness is involved. I beg to differ. We all know that the mind is inherently physical, and while the brain certainly has a great degree of plasticity to it, we are all born with personalities which by definition have to be ingrained in our brains, somehow. "Chemical imbalance" is such a cliché now that I laugh when I read it, however I don't think nurture can be the whole story here. It certainly is a crutch for a lot of people who do not take responsibility for their own wellbeing. But I believe some people are born prone to depression. Some people might not grow up in an environment where this proneness (or "wiring", as it were) expresses itself fully. This is a good thing. However in some cases, unless artificial and selective amnesia is induced in depressed individuals (of which I have no idea if has been performed), I believe certain people can never recover from their depression. And since we cannot know how a person feels, or if their pain is worse or even comparable to that of a "purely physical illness" such as cancer, we as bystanders are not fit to judge. So the moral aspect of it is sound. While I think it is a personal right to committ suicide, I do NOT condone the act as a means of emotional blackmail.
I think OP makes a good point in
It is a wonderful idea, and I routinely come to this conclusion, after a bout of depression. When I really hit the lowest depth, I ask myself the question: "Why not try to live carelessly for a while, instead of attempting suicide?" Then I live by the "careless philosophy" for a day or two.
Here I think the problem arises when you try to practise this in real life; living carelessly. I can embrace this attitude for a couple of days; walking across the road genuinely trying to avoid a car accident, while not actually caring if I die. Drinking just as to be tipsy and not blacking out and ending up on the floor somewhere. But why should I not just go with the flow and see how drunk I can get, as momentarily it feels like the thing to do? After all, I don't give a shit. Professionally and academically the problem gets even bigger. I cannot perform if I don't tie a purpose of some kind to the work I do.
And it becomes more clear romantically: if you were to do as Louis in the referred episode, and not care how you come across to the opposite sex, maybe it will work. But if it does, wouldn't you suddenly start caring again? And once this relationship fails (as I assume it does), how do you not care about this? If you never cared, what was the point of the exercise? What I'm trying to say is that I find it impossible to gain or lose something and simultaneously not attach some meaning and significance, however fickle, to it. I think we are hardwired to -care- and to expect some things in life, as a driving force for accomplishment. And without this, we become conscious, pointless spectators in our own lives.