Thank you so much for further calling attention to the sacrifice made by Aaron Bushnell...I hope that his extreme act will be the turning point, and that the current nightmare being acted out in Gaza will end...I weep daily over the senseless and cruel acts being committed against innocent civilians and I feel so helpless...What Aaron Bushnell did validates on a deep level what I feel...I would give my life if I truly thought it would make any difference...And if I had the courage...
Dr. Lee, I am a fellow Substack writer and read today's post. It's interesting to me that you jogged my own awareness of partisanship. In my case, it is a lot like religion. At some point, it would be ideal to all come to our own awareness and choices around what we stand for, believe, and clearly see our values and we value them. I'd already done that with nonpartisanship in religion. I became aware as I read today that the political label has never sat comfortably on me. My spiritual and political beliefs are more complex than any label. Thank you. I am glad you are here writing. I'm very moved.
In response to three self-immolations in the U.S. in 1965 (Morrison, Alice Herz, Roger LaPorte) peace movement elder statesman A.J. Muste observed that such action would be open to criticism is a society that valued human life. “But ours is a society composed of people who somehow feel that the death of hundreds of thousands, millions, in war is somehow normal and civilized. Even more, this is a society in which people contemplate, for the most part calmly, the self -immolation of the whole of mankind in a nuclear holocaust.”
I imagine many here empathize with making an extreme physical self-sacrifice if it would help save humankind from itself. Some cultures consider it a social duty under some circumstances to kill ourselves.
When we consider the blatant disregard of the law, and ethics, going on around us, physical suicide might seem a rational means to communicate in a world where we're not heard, although it might not be helpful if all ethical people made physical ultimate sacrifices in protest.
As a 15 year-old, I made many plans for suicide and began carrying out two plans, but fortunately failed, although at the time I just saw my lack of resolve as weakness. As a 19 year-old I fell into despair over how I couldn't trust any of the institutions I'd once loved, or any of the people I'd once respected, and couldn't even trust myself to ever do the right thing or be the person I wanted to be. This was a different despair than I'd had earlier because it wasn't myself I wanted to end as much as evil itself--it all had to end and I'm still surprised I survived.
What interests me today is whether a species where people wield powerful global technologies with blind thoughtlessness and excessive self-aggrandizement can survive at all.
Today, it strikes me the balance of virtue within all of us is closer to 51-49. It's a razor-thin balance where the loss of one good person is indeed a tragedy because we all need all the help we can get. I see Bushnell's actions as less about society than himself not knowing how to battle the benign and malevolent indifference we call the human condition.
There are better ways to protest than suicide and its our job to help people like Bushnell find a voice.
The situation in the Middle East is a longstanding one, of course, and is another example of thinking inside a box that resolves nothing in that way. Alternatively, there can be a transition from ancient traditions inside that box to an enlightenment outside, a paradigm shift that has lagged behind the one begun in the 1700s, mainly in Europe and North America (though the semitic peoples have made immense cultural and scientific advances throughout history). I'm focusing on the need to prioritize secular law which is based on material evidence for enhancing equal justice, while respect is maintained for religious beliefs of all kinds (and even non-belief). Of course, it would reflect the U.S. First Amendment, which I say would be properly interpreted in that way and enforced accordingly. Such a development world-wide, beyond geographical boundaries, is a longstanding endeavor toward an ideal goal of peace, and may not fully be seen in any of our lifetimes. But efforts should nevertheless be made to accomplishing it.
Why doesn’t ANYONE mention the issues of the #OverpopulationAwarenessGroup? So many children means NO #FamilyPlanningClinics because #FundamentalistMuslims want to take over the world !
Hamas is ensuring that #TakeOverplan with their treatment of their suppressed women and by training all boys to become warriors, where ever they can! Consider THAT !?!
The amount of resources US wasted ($8 Trillion worth) on fictitious war on terror could've transformed world energy infrastructure into clean green energy. The amount of resources mankind wasted on WW2 could've transformed world into something unimaginably far more progressive civilization. We might have colonized Mars & moon in sustainable way.
Edit - Dr Lee, the person in photo died in the incident. Humble request to please remove the photo.
Thank you so much for further calling attention to the sacrifice made by Aaron Bushnell...I hope that his extreme act will be the turning point, and that the current nightmare being acted out in Gaza will end...I weep daily over the senseless and cruel acts being committed against innocent civilians and I feel so helpless...What Aaron Bushnell did validates on a deep level what I feel...I would give my life if I truly thought it would make any difference...And if I had the courage...
Dr. Lee, I am a fellow Substack writer and read today's post. It's interesting to me that you jogged my own awareness of partisanship. In my case, it is a lot like religion. At some point, it would be ideal to all come to our own awareness and choices around what we stand for, believe, and clearly see our values and we value them. I'd already done that with nonpartisanship in religion. I became aware as I read today that the political label has never sat comfortably on me. My spiritual and political beliefs are more complex than any label. Thank you. I am glad you are here writing. I'm very moved.
In response to three self-immolations in the U.S. in 1965 (Morrison, Alice Herz, Roger LaPorte) peace movement elder statesman A.J. Muste observed that such action would be open to criticism is a society that valued human life. “But ours is a society composed of people who somehow feel that the death of hundreds of thousands, millions, in war is somehow normal and civilized. Even more, this is a society in which people contemplate, for the most part calmly, the self -immolation of the whole of mankind in a nuclear holocaust.”
I imagine many here empathize with making an extreme physical self-sacrifice if it would help save humankind from itself. Some cultures consider it a social duty under some circumstances to kill ourselves.
When we consider the blatant disregard of the law, and ethics, going on around us, physical suicide might seem a rational means to communicate in a world where we're not heard, although it might not be helpful if all ethical people made physical ultimate sacrifices in protest.
As a 15 year-old, I made many plans for suicide and began carrying out two plans, but fortunately failed, although at the time I just saw my lack of resolve as weakness. As a 19 year-old I fell into despair over how I couldn't trust any of the institutions I'd once loved, or any of the people I'd once respected, and couldn't even trust myself to ever do the right thing or be the person I wanted to be. This was a different despair than I'd had earlier because it wasn't myself I wanted to end as much as evil itself--it all had to end and I'm still surprised I survived.
What interests me today is whether a species where people wield powerful global technologies with blind thoughtlessness and excessive self-aggrandizement can survive at all.
Today, it strikes me the balance of virtue within all of us is closer to 51-49. It's a razor-thin balance where the loss of one good person is indeed a tragedy because we all need all the help we can get. I see Bushnell's actions as less about society than himself not knowing how to battle the benign and malevolent indifference we call the human condition.
There are better ways to protest than suicide and its our job to help people like Bushnell find a voice.
The situation in the Middle East is a longstanding one, of course, and is another example of thinking inside a box that resolves nothing in that way. Alternatively, there can be a transition from ancient traditions inside that box to an enlightenment outside, a paradigm shift that has lagged behind the one begun in the 1700s, mainly in Europe and North America (though the semitic peoples have made immense cultural and scientific advances throughout history). I'm focusing on the need to prioritize secular law which is based on material evidence for enhancing equal justice, while respect is maintained for religious beliefs of all kinds (and even non-belief). Of course, it would reflect the U.S. First Amendment, which I say would be properly interpreted in that way and enforced accordingly. Such a development world-wide, beyond geographical boundaries, is a longstanding endeavor toward an ideal goal of peace, and may not fully be seen in any of our lifetimes. But efforts should nevertheless be made to accomplishing it.
Why doesn’t ANYONE mention the issues of the #OverpopulationAwarenessGroup? So many children means NO #FamilyPlanningClinics because #FundamentalistMuslims want to take over the world !
Hamas is ensuring that #TakeOverplan with their treatment of their suppressed women and by training all boys to become warriors, where ever they can! Consider THAT !?!
The amount of resources US wasted ($8 Trillion worth) on fictitious war on terror could've transformed world energy infrastructure into clean green energy. The amount of resources mankind wasted on WW2 could've transformed world into something unimaginably far more progressive civilization. We might have colonized Mars & moon in sustainable way.
Edit - Dr Lee, the person in photo died in the incident. Humble request to please remove the photo.
How you can promote this public act of grotesque violence, one done in the service of a genocidal death cult, is beyond me!
Dr Lee, and others, you may be interested in this article from the Atlantic: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/self-immolation-aaron-bushnell-israel-palestine/677584/