Comments on: Self-immolation as protest

By: JoeFord2

JoeFord2 — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 01:00:00 +0000

Self-immolation in Tibet is a form of violence, and has a lot to do with morality when the Dali Lama clan encouraged these events to say the least. They branded those teenage monks as hero of Tibet. Sort of like to burn yourself alive is a glory for Tibet. Those teenage monks who survived the burn really regret of what they did. Too bad the dead did not have that chance. Yet the western media, including the World, continues to work for the Dali Lama clan in India, and to blame China for everything, when in fact all this shit was orchestrated in advance. The Dali Lama and the people around him in India are so desperate that they are willing to try everything for their cause. The violence a few years back by thugs and Monks was also orchestrated; the western media knew about it, yet its reporting downplayed the violence part by the Tibetan, in an intentionally and biased fashion.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:32:00 +0000

These events have nothing to do with morality. How bad could it be for someone to kill themselves? To feel no hope or future might do it. Or having a religion that so convinces you that God would approve. Religion can justify caste systems, holy wars, or the idea that life continues anyway, so it’s OK to end it here. A double-edged sword.
I think most of us know in our bones why that man set fire to his world, and morality had nothing to do with it.

By: William E. Bartle Jr. MSW

William E. Bartle Jr. MSW — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 14:24:45 +0000

I think your sociological expert fails to see the full dimensions of “self immolation”. For Buddhists, the purpose in life is to end suffering of self/others. Liberation from physical existence, for whatever purpose is not feared. Pain can be experienced “differently” as well.
Insofar as others commit suicide, the phenomenon is only statistically “abberant”! No clinical evaluation is required. Japanese ritual suicide address a theme of reaction to “loss of face” and is ritual means of restoring the balance of “shame” and “honor” which the individual sees as lost. It also allows family to reduce their feelings of shame. It is not, strictly, “suicide” as defined in Western psychologies. Overall, I would observe your expert as “culture-bound” in his remarks.

By: Makikijoe

Makikijoe — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 10:26:20 +0000

“Is is morally justifiable …..” ?

Doesn’t anyone double check the grammar before posting articles on The World ?

Please, more professionalism.

By: Richard Dugan

Richard Dugan — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 03:12:26 +0000

I think Frank’s comment was largely irrelevant and massively misinformed.

Aside from the fact that in Vietnam the protests were done by Buddhist monks, none of the stories in the article have anything to do with specifically religiously motivated self-immolation. Although it is correct to describe these actions as criminal, no one used religion to invoke fear, restrict speech, espouse “violence, hatred, death for blasphemy.”

The reason this is worth noting is that, from Frank’s description, it sounds like he associates the Tunisian uprising with the work of al Qaeda, the Taliban, or other violent Islamist extremists.

Huh?

How can sacrificing yourself for the greater good, and ultimately being successful, be “stupid”? It should be obvious that there are greater goals in this world than providing mere comfort and joy, like justice and freedom.

By: frank

frank — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:52:17 +0000

I think it is stupid to self-immollate.
I also think religon should provide comfort and joy, not fear, and not restsrictions on speech. Espousing violence, hatred, death for blasphmey is also stupid and criminal.

By: geo

geo — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 04:30:15 +0000

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stefan Lux
Born November 11, 1888(1888-11-11)

Stefan Lux (November 11, 1888 Malacky – July 3, 1936 Geneva) was a Jewish Czech journalist, who committed suicide in the general assembly room of the League of Nations during its session, July 3, 1936, to alert the world on the perils of German antisemitism. After shouting “C’est le dernier coup” (“This is the final blow,”) he shot himself with a revolver.[1]

Lux was as well a writer who published works under the pseudonym of Peter Sturmbusch, a theater actor and a film director.[2]

By: denitza

denitza — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:42:53 +0000

yes. people have to right to choose what they do with their bodies, and if they believe that their action could cause a positive impact, i believe it’s an honorable thing to protest in such a way.

By: C Schutz

C Schutz — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 03:36:33 +0000

I was surprised you didn’t mention the the American, Norman Morrison who made the strong statement of self-immolation in 1965, and also surprised that you interviewed someone with the viewpoint that these people must be psychotic, without giving a mention to the overwhemingly greater violence of the wars or the societies that many of these people were protesting and how these wars or these societies with their infinitely greater level of violence directed at others as a way to solve social, policical, emotional and spiritual problems, then, must equate to MASS PSYCHOSIS, if self-immolation is psyhosis.

I would turn this equation of -psychosis upside-down and say that those people who were able to live and die so clearly and forcefully may have been the only SANE people in the face the psychosis that is the nature of war, whether it is that perpetrated on Vietnam or Iraq, by Hitler, or Saddam, or the Taliban.

As you can see, I realize that the culture that sees war as normal and as just another instrument of Foreign Policy is really the haven and breeding ground for psychosis and Psychotics who believe they are normal, and , or course, they are, because normal only refers to collective values.

That is the myth and paradigm in which the consciousness of the US is trapped/stuck/floundering such that as a nation it has shot off both feet and is working its way up the body. What the US is visiting upon herself and the rest of the World in the name of Democracy and Freedom is truly psychosis, but that seems to be a part of the learning and evolution of consciousness that is occurring, albeit so painfully to the players involved.

I always enjoy your show, thank you!

By: Stephen Schmidt

Stephen Schmidt — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 01:52:48 +0000

I would like to just point out that this has also happened in the United States. In 2006 Chicagoan Malachi Ritscher took his life by self-immolation in protest of the Iraq war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi_Ritscher

By: The World

The World — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:44:18 +0000

We’re interested in what you think about these extreme acts of protest.
Is is morally justifiable to commit an act of self-immolation? Tell us what you think by leaving a comment here.