Humans have no natural predators. We have conquered many forms of disease and continue to do so. Our life expectancy is increasing. And so are our numbers. More humans living longer lives.
Really, we’ve gotten to the point where the reduction of humans must be “voluntary” because certainly nothing else can kill us. Ideally our species would have enough restraint to limit its breeding, but that’s not working. So the only other ways of self-imposing our reduction of numbers are murder and suicide.
With that in mind, do you suppose we here at SP might be at the cutting edge of evolution? The decision to voluntarily end one’s own life is at the opposite end of the spectrum from our primitive instinct for self-preservation. Is it fair to say that some of us have evolved past self-preservation, just as civilized society has evolved past rape like our caveman ancestors did?
In the end I guess it doesn’t matter. My reason for suicide has nothing to do with any grand scheme of improving the world. I’m just here because life has beaten me down. But still it might be a comfort to think that we are not nature’s total failures. Perhaps we, the ones who take our own lives, can be counted as the evolved souls.
Well that and 50c will get you a cup of coffee.
14 comments
I consider myself evolved, regardless of whether anyone thinks that’s ludicrous or arrogant. I’m almost never arrogant, and usually far from ludicrous, though i suppose everyone has their moments.
I’ve wrestled with the idea of “helping the race improve” by removing myself from it. I’ve concluded that my suicide would be purely selfish, without regard to any impact the world i leave behind may receive. I wouldn’t be doing it to help anyone else but me, in the way that removing my own existence will prevent my misery from continuing. It’s not about expecting to “feel good” in some “afterlife,” and it’s not about believing i will experience “peace.” It’s about the fact that there seems to be but a single viable solution to the problem of suffering, and that is to not exist. If i don’t exist, i can’t suffer. If i’m suffering enough that i can’t even do anything good that i’d miss out on, then anything i end up missing out on, doesn’t count, because it wasn’t available to me anyway. If all i have is bad, then i can delete myself to permanently prevent my experience of those bad things… and in the absence of anything worth enduring pain for, there is no solid argument to convince me i’d be wrong to use that solution. If all i have is bad and neutral, then what am i really losing? Losing a negative is actually a net-gain. If i end up at zero instead of in the negative, then who decides whether i’m allowed to think that’s okay? Me. That’s who. I don’t particularly care whether the world would be better off without me. I do, however, think that i would be better off without the world, and without my own existence. I would be better off not forced to suffer for no reason, other than just to survive to perpetuate my own suffering.
And you know what? There are systems in place as we speak, which are designed to thin the herd. Not only are our lives “owned” by our economic slavers, our futures, even our deaths are already bought and sold. We don’t even have to “choose” to die. Those who can afford to buy the deaths of entire populations, have already made deals to create a future with less living humans.
Humans are our own natural predators. “We” kill each other whenever we can get away with it, and even some of us, sometimes when we can’t.
I can’t call 7 billion of anything “a total failure.” I realize now, you meant that for “us,” not the entire global populous. In that case, what did “we” really fail? Is it still “our failure,” if we have no choice but to play a game that’s designed to make it impossible for us to win? I can’t justifiably call that failure. It’s just incredibly unfair and unfortunate that we’ve been born into a scenario where we have no choice but to play a game with rules that eliminate victory from the list of possible outcomes… where the only way to win is to NOT play by the rules, which are often enforced through violence and imprisonment.
Idk. The whole thing is just absurd, to me. If the human-built impossible game world drives me to suicide, i wouldn’t give a damn if the whole world died with me, or right after me, or was doomed to crumble in my wake. If the world treats me like garbage and imposes conditions that i can’t change, which cause perpetual suffering… then i shouldn’t give a single fuck about what happens to it. And i kinda don’t, aside from a few individuals that i would rather not cause to lose their chance to experience a good life. But once they’re gone, burn it down and flush it all away, i say.
Improve the race by offing myself? Pfft. At this point i’d rather sabotage it.
“Losing a negative is actually a net-gain.”
That’s a really optimistic thought I’ll keep for the rest of the day.
I agree, when it comes right down to it, suicide is selfish. But maybe some global good can still come of it. In addition to your personal motivations, you can imagine that you’re using your suicide to teach others that they also have the choice to live or die.
Just by being a statistic, we’re making that statement.
And here’s the kicker, by showing others that suicide is an option, we are not only sabotaging the human race but we’re HELPING it. Go figure.
But yeah you’re right about humans being their own predator. The number of human deaths due to wars, murder and random stupidity probably dwarfs the number of suicides. If I were serious about my strategy, it would probably be more effective to convince governments to commit genocide. Oh wait they already do that. Carry on then.
Suicide won’t be considered a valid ‘option’ until hospitals legally provide a service where its clients can be injected with an overdose of morphine or ‘put to sleep’. And I honestly believe they should offer this service. It would be clean and simple, and would eliminate the trauma of repeated failed suicide attempts. It would also be a benefit for those who are so physically impaired that they would rather die than have to go on relying on others their entire life. I’m not sure if medically assisted suicide is legal anywhere, but it should be a right for those of age to take their own life if they deem it necessary. I would, however, advise against legalizing teenagers or anyone underage (perhaps unless they are severely disabled), as I believe people should at least have a taste of adulthood before they decide life isn’t for them. It seems more fair to their relatives that way as well.
There’s a really good movie called “You Don’t Know Jack” about Dr. Jack Kevorkian who provided the suicide machine that allowed terminally ill patients to slip away painlessly and with dignity.
In the movie you see he carefully screened patients, only assisting the incurable whose families supported their decision. A few he denied were heartbreaking, such as the teenager who was horribly disfigured from 3rd degree burns (prior suicide attempt).
Even so, the US government put him in jail for 8 years. That should tell you how willing our society is to accepting the notion that people have the right to choose their own death.
Until that day when we have suicide services at hospitals like you suggest, I guess we’ll have to do it the messy way.
I do agree that teenagers may be too young. I really wanted to kill myself at 15 but I’m glad I didn’t go through with it. Life got a lot better, and I’d like to think I did some good things for the world after I left home. But now I’m pretty sure I’m done for.
I’d like to see if a study has ever been done on people who overcome suicide. At what age does suicide become “incurable”?
I have always had thoughts of killing myself. I think it might have been handed down to me somewhere as I was developing as a baby. I say this because I can’t think of an influence in my upbringing that would cause this, but then again I can’t remember any day I didn’t feel like jumping from a tall building. But I was lucky enough to receive influence growing up that over rides the need to self harm (which was a big problm of mine) and to carry out the actions. But the thought of “I just want this to be over” never goes away..and I don think it ever will.
All these combined influences and my experience with pain, evil, failure, and torture have created this angry and very frustrated person I am today.
Even today, it takes everything I have inside to keep from flipping out. It’s like there is a huge pressure on my head almost all the time. Like dropping a mentos in a soda bottle and trying to contain the pressure…eventually (and quite often) I blow up!! lol
As you have probly seen!! 😀
Good post and comments!!
Haha the Mentos in the soda bottle… the story of my life :s You’re definitely not alone my friend.
Funny how you were born with thoughts of suicide. Maybe that supports my whole “evolutionary” or “genetic” rationale behind suicide? Maybe some of us are just programmed this way.
I have to admit, if I were a normal person, not obsessed with suicide, I might’ve been able to dig my way out of this mess, forget the past and eke out a normal lifespan. But that thought disgusts me. I really do think being suicidal is a gift in some ways, and even if I get sprinkled with pixie dust that makes me stupidly happy, I hope I always question why I live.
You can’t kill yourself because society says its not “morally justified or correct”. We will never be allowed to have ownership over ourselves because its the way things are set up. However, like clevername mentioned it is ironic that there are indeed plans to rid the earth of most of its population (Agenda 21) and this is not a “conspiracy theory” it is a fact. Bill Gates and….I can’t remember the CEO of Cartoon Network …Ted something…but anyway both have gone on to say that we need to thin down the population and that the earth can’t sustain an expanding population which is utterly absurd to me.
People painted Kevorkian as an evil doctor but I don’t see it that way. The only reason he was jailed is because he was showing people that they don’t have to suffer unnecessarily and because he was messing with the matrix. Even though he didn’t grant death to all that came to him he still showed mercy that our modern doctors and politicians are incapable of. Instead of giving a suffering person the right to choose they come up with new medications and laws that keep you here as long as possible to get as much as they can out of you.
Personally, I don’t consider myself evolved or advanced any more than anybody else. I just think everybody has a predestined breaking point and I have just about reached mine. As stated above by others humans kill other humans but can’t kill themselves which is so stupid to me. I think suicide is part of the natural fight or flight response in a way. Some people fight…Others choose flight.
“I think suicide is part of the natural fight or flight response in a way”
You’re right… I remember having a pet lizard who was so terrified she starved herself to death. (Note: whoever convinced me that a lizard would be a good pet should be shot.)
Scientists usually tell us that the reptilian brain is one of the most primitive brains in the animal kingdom. Well so much for my theory. I suppose I’m an evolutionary failure after all :/
About messing with the matrix, I think you hit on it. Society, or Bill Gates as the case may be, has plans for us, and if we try to mess with that we suffer the consequences. Good thing they can’t touch us after we’re dead.
I read an article on the BBC News website last week that selfish traits are not favoured by evolution. Perhaps all the really bad people will die out and the people that are left find a way to overcome this challenge.
I reckon, when the aliens get here, voluntary suicide will be the least of your worries.
Its not just Bill gates per say its more those behind the curtain. The people in the Govt and high society are only front men or pawns. The real people in power decide what happens and when. I know my own personal issues and problems are a significant contributor to me wanting death but some of it comes from the fact that terrible things are coming for the world. The economy is on fucking life support and all these eerie and evil things are happening and people let them without the slightest bit of concern. Like the DHS buying 1.6 BILLION with a B rounds of ammo, The recent spying scandals, The destruction and devaluation of the dollar, The NDAA and Patriot act, The elephant in the room that is Denver airport and so much more. If the things that are going on today in front of your eyes don’t scare you then you are oblivious. Remember not too long ago if you thought the govt was spying on you …you were crazy and delusional….. Death is really the only escape there is. I think suicide is a fuck you to the people who think they own you. It is the biggest decision anybody can ever make and the fact that they try to strip you of it is both tyrannical and repulsive.
On that note.. Can’t wait for the aliens to get here!! 🙂
I know I don’t want suicide..if.. And that “if” being.. If I can be alive to witness how the world will end. That’s the one thought that always brings excitement..gives me those good “chills”, even now. lol when that asteroid touched down in Russia..I was on the edge of my seat for weeks!! lol 😛
You are crazy RT30….Don’t know if I would want to see that….All the panic fear and hysteria will be epic. Thousands of people dead in the streets, people killing people over basic necessities, armies roaming the street, just sheer chaos…. If you want to be here and remain safe you better be a doomsday prepper with a bunker to go to.
I for one would welcome such an apocalyptic event! Imagine a world where everyone was reduced to survival mode, what better way to deconstruct this life of greed, vanity, and injustice. Give the have and have nots a level playing field where currency and social status have no importance for living. That’s why I love shows like the Walking Dead! On a side note, the mention of the US sponsoring healthcare for assisted suicide is terrific. It’ll never happen here, but in Switzerland there are assisted suicide clinics and foundations. Usually, they cater only to people dying from an incurable disease, but they have made a few exceptions… They typically assist with pentobarbital, but now use helium and ******** as it is easier to obtain.