About Life and Death

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I might not be good at writing long posts or topics but here it goes.

Last year something happened in our country, something not to be proud of, even dishonorable towards the human race. In a town in our country there was a funfair, beer, rollercoasters and a ferriswheel of course. In that town lived a man. That man decided to commit a suicide by jumping of the ferriswheel. As the man climbed up towards the sky the people noticed and stood around him saying one word over and over again: 'Jump'

This is not the only thing I thought what was a very deep shame; about an hour ago we were watching television. A show on National Geographic called "Most amazing moments". You might know the feel, many extreme things that turn out to be bad but the people always seem to manage to get away with a few bruises.
Untill I saw a video of a circus that uses a long pole to keep balance and walk over ropes in that way. Now this one turned out to be one of the "Most horrifying moments" if I could call them that way. The man on this video walked on a rope between the tops of two hotels untill he lost balance. Unfortunatly he never used any form of safety because he managed except that very day. You could just see the poor man falling to death on television and there were even people around me saying things like: 'If he wanted to get famous on television it's his own fault it has been recorded and gets shown in shows.'

I think these two things are madness, not exactly madness, complete idiocy. Is it our right to judge about people's case of life and death or their self-respect for as much they have left as they only have a name. I think it's unethical bullshit to say we can do it because it's amusing.

Now discuss.
 
It's very sad too see life and death being taken so light - heartedly. Shouting "jump" to a man on top of a ferris wheel suggests disrespect for human life. Are you from Holland Bunkle, because that country with it's "liberal" laws is an example of a place where secularism has won over traditional Christianity. With euthanasia legalised and abortions running 24/7, it's no wonder the people are telling a man to jump off a ferris wheel.
 
I am from Holland but don't think we're all nuts and sit in coffeeshops all day long. I find commanding someone to jump a total different case than euthanasia.
 
I wasn't saying that that case was the same as euthanasia, I was saying that laws like the legalisation of euthanasia has softened people's attitudes towards life. Life is now devalued and another person about to jump off a ferris wheel is a big joke because the sanctity of human life is not valued in a society where euthanasia is morraly "correct".
 
With that I meant euthanasia isn't always incorrect, if people can't do anything anymore and want to end their live. I think that's different than a depressed teenager jumping in front of a car. Many people are mentally dead but not physically so they decide to let them live. But I don't know what's the point of living if you're living while you don't even know you are.

Killing someone in this country is the same as any other; illegal. Because euthanasia is legal in here doesn't mean we just get rid of people that we don't like or need. You already said euthanasia isn't the same as this case. Euthanasia is for old devastated people that have no will to live and nothing to live for anymore. You can't say to those people they must live to the fullest, you can't teach people that have seen more things in their live than you have. As for the ferris wheel was just an example of cruelty. That incident was a public murder attempt and is nothing like euthanasia because euthanasia is reasonable and has ethical arguments. The people from the ferris wheel didn't make theirs clear. So you can't say in a country where euthanasia is legal we all laugh at the dead.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Bunkle+Jan 1 2006, 07:41 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Bunkle @ Jan 1 2006, 07:41 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]I am from Holland but don't think we're all nuts and sit in coffeeshops all day long.
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Hehe that's all I did when I went to Amsterdam. [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
The tightrope walker who fell to his death while walking between buildings was a professional entertainer who had done that his whole life. He never used a net; the danger was an intrinsic part of his act. He knew the risks, so there's no point to having sympathy for him. As far as the people watching, both on TV and on the street: they were supposed to watch. It was entertainment for the masses. I don't think you can compare it to people shouting "jump", since people didn't want to see him fall.

Incidentally, the entire family of the tightrope walker became tightrope walkers themselves and still do it to this day. Their father's accident was sad, but it hasn't deterred them at all.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-SinisterMinisterX+Jan 2 2006, 03:12 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(SinisterMinisterX @ Jan 2 2006, 03:12 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]He knew the risks, so there's no point to having sympathy for him.
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I understand what you're saying but isn't that a bit extreme?
 
[!--QuoteBegin-SinisterMinisterX+Jan 2 2006, 01:42 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(SinisterMinisterX @ Jan 2 2006, 01:42 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]He knew the risks, so there's no point to having sympathy for him.
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Is sympathy the sort of thing that requires a point? Do we feel sympathy for someone or something because we think something good will come out of it?

Maybe sympathy is in order here not because something good will be accomplished by having that feeling, but because a man's life was lost and his family and friends are suffering. Isn't that reason enough for sympathy?
 
[img src=\'http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/gladiator.jpg\' border=\'0\' alt=\'user posted image\' /]

Need I say more?
 
[!--QuoteBegin-macunaima+Jan 2 2006, 03:15 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(macunaima @ Jan 2 2006, 03:15 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]Maybe sympathy is in order here not because something good will be accomplished by having that feeling, but because a man's life was lost and his family and friends are suffering.  Isn't that reason enough for sympathy?
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A good point. And I'll admit that I probably chose the wrong word; 'sympathy' isn't quite what I meant. I just meant that he knew what he was getting into, so viewing his death as a personal tragedy for himself (not his family) doesn't make sense to me. He died doing what he loved, right?*

[span style=\'font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\']* Well, maybe he didn't love the whole falling and >splat< bit. But he presumably loved tightrope walking, since he did it for decades.[/span]
 
I think Perun's picture says it all.... It is all Russel Crowe's fault [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

seriously though, it does, the more things change the more they stay the same, we* are selfish and detached unless we have some personal connection to who or what is being killed/destroyed. We were then and we are now

* by "we" i mean human beings.
 
I think humanity became insane, and I post this, thinking of those cannibal people, those snuff movie-lovers, or all those sick people. I can't believe there are guys who enjoy to see how a man eats another man, or how someone rapes a girl and then kills her. It's a shame to have things like that.
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Onhell+Jan 3 2006, 08:18 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Onhell @ Jan 3 2006, 08:18 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]seriously though, it does, the more things change the more they stay the same, we* are selfish and detached unless we have some personal connection to who or what is being killed/destroyed. We were then and we are now
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That is one of the most truthful things I have ever read. We are too damned comfortable thinking about ourselves to actually care for others. We think it's okay to laugh at people falling off tightropes because it isn't us, or we don't know them. We are (most of us anyway) too self-centered to realise there is more to this world than the here and now aspect in reguards to our own well-being.

"A herd of antelopes may be more humane than a group of humans as they help each other, compared to the self preservation society humans live in" -[span style=\'font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\'] Conor 2006[/span]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Metal_made+Jan 3 2006, 08:42 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Metal_made @ Jan 3 2006, 08:42 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]I think humanity became insane, and I post this, thinking of those cannibal people, those snuff movie-lovers, or all those sick people. I can't believe there are guys who enjoy to see how a man eats another man, or how someone rapes a girl and then kills her.  It's a shame to have things like that.
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Then I guess you wouldn't like the epic poem I've been working on for the past year, telling the story of "Hungry Jack", who kills homeless people, cooks them, and feeds them to the other homeless people in his soup kitchen.

Someday I hope to turn it into a song. A very long song. Thick-As-A-Brick long.

Actually, the reason it's taking me so long to complete it is because I've misplaced it. I wrote many, many pages, but then I lost them. I didn't throw them away; they're in this house somwhere. But as long as it remains lost and incomplete, I consider it to be a work in progress.

What was this thread about again?
 
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