They get so wrapped up in their own problems that they don't consider how it would affect others. It's the most selfish thing that someone could do.
Sorry to bust your balloon, but in some cases, it is an option.
Start debunking hijack
Did you ever really think about this before repeating just what everybody says? (Perpetuating the status quo).
Did it ever ponder on you that everybody is always selfish?
Take Mother Theresa. Apparently, what she does is for others. And I would bet big that if somewhere she did not get a kick from doing it (pleasure) out of acting out her beliefs, she would not have done it a lifetime. Yet, she is absolutely selfish in her pursuit of pleasure, even if on the looks of it, she is not.
(And for even more fun, read Richard Dawkins` Selfish Gene. You could be surprised to find out that apparent altruism is a very selfish and economically viable selfish gene propagation scheme. Appearances can be deceiving, specially without large scale + consequences analysis)
Also consider that, when terminally ill (in the sense of absolutely no-chance of getting out of some situation or disease), suicide is incompatible with dignity.
Even the fact that people choose to have children is selfish. I know everyone hopes to give a chance for the best to someone else, based on what he likes of life, but bottom line, nobody asks you to. You do it in your own selfish choice. The child never demanded it. You acted selfish, whether good intended or not (in the sense that dirt poor people on welfare start mass breeding lifestyles - a child will be the only thing nothing can ever take away from them, even after death, what have they to lose, specially when governement funds it through welfare here - a sort of attempt at immortality of a nation through subsizided breeding, whatever income level, so to say).
When you make choices (career, food, clothing, car, whatever), do you think beyond the classic I need it? Nope. You will probably make better bad choices, but you still act as a consumer. Again, no sacrifice and selfishness (Who`s gonna tell me what I can and cannot buy, eh?…Selfishness again). You still buy. And given more means, most people would buy even more.
Another good example you can test without a chance of being mistaken. Ask someone who says Having less people on the globe would help the crops or whatever
to volunteer
his own children for the sacrifice. Look at that impenetrable wall of self-interest appear. No cooperation on this one. Selfishness again. Guess what? Everybody thinks like that. It goes against humanity, instincts, evolutionary law and common sense. Nice in principle. But never applied in reality. Again, selfishness.
Bottom line:
Everybody, whether conscious of it or not, is selfish. We only change in the degree that it appears to be altruist
. Let`s be honest and call things by their real name, will we? Personal survival (selfishness) comes far before altruism. It is built in the genes.
(By the way, this is not attempt to insult public servants like soldiers and police officers. They have my uttermost respect for putting even more on the line each day than the average joe. This thread was more in the sense that finger pointing/blame shifting
, when you truly look at it, has no sense. If you come from a principles
point of view, you probably will never see it. If you look at it from what people do whatever they say
, it gives a whole different story. When you look at it this way, its like a magic trick explained, you can
t see it otherwise from now on.).
End debunking hijack
Also consider this, who says others will think of you before they commit suicide? Maybe this will stop them, and it defuses a suicide, but then you cannot call it a suicide. Like Goldberg said, a cry for help thing.
But a successful suicide is always selfish. It separates us in a non-negociable way from all the others, just like death. By definition, a suicide is incompatible with the notion of others
. If you put others in the equation, it automatically becomes a sacrifice or defuses the suicide. Therefore, a successful suicide is, by definition, always selfish. A failed one is a cry for help.
Since the person committing it willfully chose it, he willfully put others out of the equation. The person made a calculated choice. Therefore, nobody in the family should feel guilty (even if in reality they do), unless they in some way they influenced the process (like rape, incest, etc.).
But familial and emotional bonds are not that simple to sort out when things of this type do happen, granted.