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From: kevin@lasspvax.UUCP (Kevin Saunders)
Newsgroups: net.suicide
Subject: Re: Why society - religions - oppose ...
Message-ID: <170@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Jan-85 21:06:48 EST
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.170
Posted: Sun Jan 13 21:06:48 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Jan-85 01:33:35 EST
References: <>
Reply-To: kevin@lasspvax.UUCP (Kevin Saunders)
Organization: Theory Center (Cornell University)
Lines: 25
Summary: 

>I was wondering about society's motives to counter suicide:
>               Mike Cherepov



I think the primary motive is an implied insult:  the suicide implies 
that the life others are taking *so* seriously is not meaningful, or at 
least not worth suffering too much over.  

Another motive might be that society would lose too many valuable 
people if suicide were sanctioned--best to shame them in to hanging 
on and doing something *creative* with their misery, like, say,
Dostoyevsky, or Kafka.

At any rate, in order to succeed over time, a culture/religion will
have to take the demands of reality seriously, and discourage
members/adherents from taking off to the next world unless they're doing
something worthwhile, like throwing themselves on the bayonets of the
infidels. . . .

Kevin Saunders
lasspvax.kevin@cornell.arpa

"The salmon was CANNED?!"
"Well, I'm sorry, they were all out of fresh. . ."