- 06 Oct 2020 14:30
#15125344
I tend to think, indeed, that life is only a phase of death. Of course, I suppose this is inherently antithetical to religion, or, at least, Abrahamic religion. I think it fits with the philosophy of the Tao quite nicely, however. Perhaps not with reincarnation or something like that, because that would imply some kind of entropic disintegration over time.
I think the traditional Western position is supposedly that suicide is universally 'cowardly', for the Abrahamics tend to deal in absolutes. One only needs the rudimentary understanding of British history that I have, however, to conclude that this would not have been the case before European Christendom. Boudica poisoned herself. The Romans themselves were infamous for killing themselves and one another. The Japanese were the most extreme example I know of in the other direction, when it comes to suicide, and I'm sure everyone knows what I mean. Fundamentally, life is simply less valued in the East, owing to the more collectivist mode of operation. But should life be so valued, if only a stage of death? We give ourselves purpose to occupy time, but it should not be something regretful when the time ends.
I understand the position that one who kills themselves, generally, is taking the easy way out. But a mentally stable person telling a suicidal person that suicide is cowardly is a bit like a bourgeois capitalist telling a poor person to get a job, isn't it? To be clear, I think, certainly, killing oneself to avoid being taken by the enemy should be honourable, and virtuous at that. If you fight the enemy, you fight them until you die. On the question of suicide in other circumstances, I think giving people purpose is frankly more important than specifically making the act of suicide illegal. People have a natural will to live. If your society is causing them to fight against that en masse, the problem is not them.
Local Localist wrote:Is it truly possible to say, definitively, how long one has been alive or dead? It seems that all that defines life is a lack of death, and all that defines death is a lack of life. Is it right to position it as a binary? The subject of life, in a sense, is death, when life is viewed as a delaying of death. But what if life is actually a process, or, indeed, a stage of death?
I tend to think, indeed, that life is only a phase of death. Of course, I suppose this is inherently antithetical to religion, or, at least, Abrahamic religion. I think it fits with the philosophy of the Tao quite nicely, however. Perhaps not with reincarnation or something like that, because that would imply some kind of entropic disintegration over time.
I think the traditional Western position is supposedly that suicide is universally 'cowardly', for the Abrahamics tend to deal in absolutes. One only needs the rudimentary understanding of British history that I have, however, to conclude that this would not have been the case before European Christendom. Boudica poisoned herself. The Romans themselves were infamous for killing themselves and one another. The Japanese were the most extreme example I know of in the other direction, when it comes to suicide, and I'm sure everyone knows what I mean. Fundamentally, life is simply less valued in the East, owing to the more collectivist mode of operation. But should life be so valued, if only a stage of death? We give ourselves purpose to occupy time, but it should not be something regretful when the time ends.
I understand the position that one who kills themselves, generally, is taking the easy way out. But a mentally stable person telling a suicidal person that suicide is cowardly is a bit like a bourgeois capitalist telling a poor person to get a job, isn't it? To be clear, I think, certainly, killing oneself to avoid being taken by the enemy should be honourable, and virtuous at that. If you fight the enemy, you fight them until you die. On the question of suicide in other circumstances, I think giving people purpose is frankly more important than specifically making the act of suicide illegal. People have a natural will to live. If your society is causing them to fight against that en masse, the problem is not them.
Make gentrify total destroy!
- By FiveofSwords
- By wat0n