Suicide Clubs?
My friend Ian alerted me to this story on the web. Just click on my title and you can go there.
The story is about teens and suicides. Suicide clubs that start on the web. Now, this is temporally and categorically different than my middle age suicide. Teen suicide, not all of it but some, has an emulation aspect. Remember Columbine? Suddenly there is a spate of copy-cat shooting. Why? Teens seek inclusion, identity, their group. The extent of the connection, the intensity of the act, for some that is a compelling aspect. We all remember, or know, or now know, how intense life is as a teenager. Suicide, as an irrevocable act, is not a sufficient deterrent to inclusion in a club.
Now, that's not the only side. The despair side, the futility side, the I am an individual side (and hence oh so alone) - those are the common aspects of teen suicide. But there was a wonderful Oliver Sacks article about copycat suicides in southeast Asian - and so it exists, it is a common enough event.
Middle age suicide has nothing to do with inclusion. Just the opposite. The time for me, as a person, to be one with society is over. I will never be able to join, not in a meaningful way via work or children or a spouse. There is no promise. The thought of death doesn't even effect my heart rate.
Of course there are other factors involved here. Japan is a special society, the internet can bring together easily people who otherwise would have no contact. Our species has a death wish. Especially when you are young.
The story is about teens and suicides. Suicide clubs that start on the web. Now, this is temporally and categorically different than my middle age suicide. Teen suicide, not all of it but some, has an emulation aspect. Remember Columbine? Suddenly there is a spate of copy-cat shooting. Why? Teens seek inclusion, identity, their group. The extent of the connection, the intensity of the act, for some that is a compelling aspect. We all remember, or know, or now know, how intense life is as a teenager. Suicide, as an irrevocable act, is not a sufficient deterrent to inclusion in a club.
Now, that's not the only side. The despair side, the futility side, the I am an individual side (and hence oh so alone) - those are the common aspects of teen suicide. But there was a wonderful Oliver Sacks article about copycat suicides in southeast Asian - and so it exists, it is a common enough event.
Middle age suicide has nothing to do with inclusion. Just the opposite. The time for me, as a person, to be one with society is over. I will never be able to join, not in a meaningful way via work or children or a spouse. There is no promise. The thought of death doesn't even effect my heart rate.
Of course there are other factors involved here. Japan is a special society, the internet can bring together easily people who otherwise would have no contact. Our species has a death wish. Especially when you are young.
posted by fredsoffa at 5:15 PM
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