Suicide: Heroic or Cowardly

First of all the question is wrong. This is a serious matter and it’s not about cowards or heroes. Yes, you can use words to try to “tag” , but it’s not that simple. It’s not all black and white.
People who try to kill themselves are often people who are not asking for help.And are people who are not understood by others because they don’t want to be understood.
I’ve been there.And I remember very clearly about the judgment that followed my atempt. Also, I don’t think we will ever have the full ability to judge other people.We are all different, and we surely cannot fully understand the full set of emotions other people have, or what events drives them to do a thing or another.
Suicide is an act of desperation if you really want to die. It can also be an act used to focus people’s attention on you, a cry of help.
It can mean lots of things, but I just think is shallow to call those people cowards or heroes.

Life is a game, if someone decides they don’t want to play anymore that’s their choice. Whether its cowardly or not isn’t the right question. If someone commits suicide, they simply don’t enjoy being alive.

@egarim, I feel it is the height of cowardice and fear, it is simply like saying; I know better then life and I say it has nothing more to give (gives me a very arrogant feeling to it). Also usually it comes as a rational decision based on free will and a “its my life”-kind of idea during depressions, haven’t heard about many happy people turning off the light willingly.

Also; to commit such an act one must truly be driven to do it. And the question is if that drive is controlled or controlling. If it is controlled it is indeed courage, if it is controlling it is fear. Ah, this just popped up; if one truly is courageous nothing can make one take the easy way out. Death is not the greatest adversary to be faced so to speak. So it cannot be the ultimate test of courage, Id say that is to live on when it seems rock bottom dark.

@dkanowsky, I think sometimes people just decide to go home and they are banking on Gods understanding. Now that’s Faith! Take away the fear of death and you have truly free people. I can’t wait to go home myself. But not willing to kill myself to do it. I was hoping my wife would kill me. Now that would be romantic and tragic!

i believe its very brave. it depends on the cause i think. but to go to this undiscovered country where no one ever returns from and because of this we all fear…i think choosing death and not waiting for death to choose you is brave but if you believe in karma and all that theres a chance your gonna have to go thru what you’ve been thru all over. you have to learn your lessons and until these lessons are learned they will keep repeating themselves in different ways and versions but in essence same lesson. same goes for waking life. you ever notice the same situation happens to you? sometimes over and over? its a lesson your learning, an experience you chose. suicide, what drove you to these limits unless dealth with and going thru it you’ll have to face it again. you cant escape the inevitable so stay here with us for any who wants to go, you actually begged and pleaded to be able to come to earth during this time. i wanted to leave as well trust me, but in the end i was shown why i should stay and that the best is yet to come. the next 6 months will be an amazing ride that much i can promise all of you. love you all! ~Hermes

for those of you saying cowardice? wouldnt it take more bravery to face the unknown that is death, versus staying here to deal with your everyday life. 99% of the world is scared to dies o somebody going willingly i say it takes courage. i myself have no judgements on the matter, every case is different and so is every individual. ~HERMES

There is nothing more cowardly than suicide.

How is that even a question to discuss?

@egarim, It’s not a matter of opinion at all, it’s a matter of using words the right fucking way.

Coward: Someone who gets afraid, backs down, escapes, is overcome by fear.

Hero: Someone glorious who does great deeds, a saviour, a fighter.

If you kill yourself, you’ve proven that you fear the world and life itself, that you’re all fear and no love.
And there’s obviously nothing heroic about killing yourself, it doesn’t make anything better for anyone, it doesn’t accomplish anything, it there’s no challenge in it. Anyone can do it at any moment.

Seriously, people having their stupid opinions on things like this is the reason why we don’t get anywhere. It’s fucking ridiculous.

But by all means, let them kill themselves “out of heroism.” That way, there’ll be less morons around, it’s self-sanitation I guess. Just like thugs kill eacother off, I guess some of the fuckups kill themselves off. It’s one of those issues that destroys itself sooner or later, just temporary bullshit.

I’m looking forward to the time when it’s over.

My answer in a poem. It applies to suicide as well.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas

@egarim, “I am reading all your responses but let me add something: those who have not considered or attempted suicide do not know how much of a dilemma it is. What you say you can do and what you actually do are two different things. The way I see it is that people claim they are capable of something but when it comes down to it the majority are not.”

thank you for pointing this out, as it is blatantly clear that many of the “Cowardly” perspective on this matter have neither experienced first or second-hand and do not realize that the decision to kill oneself is not as simply or easy as turning off a light. it is a serious decision.

@manimal …do you even think before you type? people in general do not commit suicide out of fear or the delusion of being heroic. also, I do not think you are fully aware of what it means to entertain the idea of suicide, it is not easy and not everyone could do it. if you think you could simply kill yourself, with no thought behind it, since “there’s no challenge in it” then congratulations, but realize that is not the case for just about everyone else. you’ve a highly denigrating view on this matter, and it is really this reason why we don’t get anywhere, not because people want to openly discuss views on controversial or taboo topics.

No one chose to come into this life. If they find said life to be too hard to bear, then I say it’s their choice. Of course in a perfect world no one would commit such an act but unfortunately we don’t live in a perfect world. I had a friend in highschool who got a DUI, lost his job, and lost his girlfriend in a week. He hung himself. Was I pissed? Yeah of course, but whether someone should live or not is not up to me. Having been extremely depressed and contemplating suicide before, I know it’s not an easy thing to do. It takes huge fucking balls to go through with it. Running away from your problems? Yeah that’s cowardly. But actually killing yourself takes courage, as bad as that sounds.

@mimic, How is that anything but extremely cowardly? If you understood anything about their mentality you would understand that this was all about fear of the shogun, and fear of failure and loss of honour.
It’s not early either, it’s 22:57 over here.

@egarim, None of it was directed at you, it’s a misunderstanding based on the stupid way the english language handles the word “you.”

I am not the one who is blinded, please keep those assumptions to yourself.
The “nuances” are illusions, taking them into regard does not mean seeing more, it means seeing less.

It’s not at all a matter of opinion. It’s a matter of not understanding the words “coward” and “hero.”

If I caught a deadly disease I would make sure to get well again. Even if it seemed hopeless, I wouldn’t give up, and giving up is the definition of cowardice. Plus, you never KNOW that you don’t have much time left, that’s just an assumption. It’s very ignorant.

You’re confusing reasons with excuses. And, yknow, self-deception is a powerful thing, we do it all the time, a person can be fully convinced that they’re not running away while they in fact are running away. The ego easily finds a way to bypass your pride and reason when there is a “need” for it, it’s a very clever function of the human mind, and very tricky to spot. Fight or flight is an instinctive reaction, a necessity, and when we’re indecisive the ego must find a way to propel us in either direction, and to avoid being spotted and intercepted it does it through discreet self-deception.

Our minds are being hijacked frequently by this impulse, even those who are aware and understand the ego fall to it over and over on a daily basis. That’s what gives us personality and habits and all that shit.
You cannot kill yourself without your ego’s consent, and the only way to get the ego’s consent on a thing like that is through self-deception. Convincing yourself that you’re not just giving up and escaping.