What's wrong with western culture?

[Lancer]

Nope...

[RGBVideo]

16-21 year old male, without gf, nerdy-looking, doesn't get to college, middle-class -parents, living alone, suffering from a really serious depression... Like about 1 000 similar persons per year, he wants to kill himself. However, Petri also knows this, he knows that a lot of guys like he'll end up dead. He knows that nobody, except the statisticians, care a **** from them, so they'll be forgotten as a losers who can't handle their lives properly.

Petri doesn't want to be a forgotten loser. Petri want's attention, which he hasn't ever got. Petri wants public to care from his miserable destiny. So, instead of killing himself, Petri, who is a failed chemistry student, takes a large shopping bag, fills it with home-made explosives, spikes and nails, then goes to center of the mall - and blows himself.

Results: 7 people died, 11 permamently injured, 50 got off with major and minor wounds. Damage of € 1 300 000 inflicted upon the mall. Speeches held by the president, PM, minister of interior affairs, tabloids have screaming headlines for about a week. After that?

Nothing. Most of the people don't even remember the name anymore.

Petri Gerdt is a forgotten loser. And nobody cares from his miserable, tragicomic destiny.



Here's a link, you can browse other links which are on the bottom of the story...

http://www.helsinki-hs.net/news.asp?id=20021016IE7

[Lancer]

He was angry at the world and killed and hurt some random people to get even, though they never even knew him. Mean little **** wasn't he?

Anyway, the village is still there, the community is gone. People are running around chasing empty dreams and nothing really makes sense. That's not the fault of the people he blew up. Listen, getting all angry about it, getting a demeanor like the one in your avatar Tuom, that's just taking part in the emptyness of it all, making things worse. Who can find hope in such a face? Finding an alternative to getting mean, to losing hope, that means looking to the past when those things existed that had true value. Value to the soul... For me, that value can be found in the third world. It was a very long search for me, and I couldn't find it... in this culture.

[Boris Godunov]

I see little evidence that "western culture" in particular is undergoing some sort of horrible turmoil. What is happening is a continual disassociation among individuals, which has been an ongoing consequence of Industrialization throughout the world. Misanthropy is a result of alienation, which is itself a result of the removal of people from traditional and instinctual social spheres.

This is happening everywhere, not just the west.

[Lancer]

Sounds like Alvin Toffler.

[RGBVideo]

Misanthropy is a result of alienation, which is itself a result of the removal of people from traditional and instinctual social spheres.

Sums it all up pretty well.

[Boris Godunov]

Lancer, the bottom line is (I know you will love this) that Hillary was indeed correct--it takes a village. The loss of the village is what is creating the increased numbers of rampant sociopaths.

[Ben Kenobi]

According to one site**, the Philippines suicide rate is an astonishingly low 2.1 per 100,000.

With a few more data points, you could cultivate an objective measure testifying positive effects of Catholic theology.


Very cool.

As for my church, we teach that anyone considering suicide needs help and treatment for depression, not condemnation.

a continual disassociation among individuals, which has been an ongoing consequence of Industrialization throughout the world.

I agree with Boris. This seems to me an excellent thesis for the problem. One of the most important aspects of religion to alleviate modern dissociation is the community fellowship.

[Lancer]

I agree with that in principal, with the exception that the village is still there, the community is not. Nor are the people of the village to be trusted to raise a kid. Remember, Hillary's kid went to the pricey private school, nowhere near the village. Fear...

[Boris Godunov]

Uh, you're completely misconstruing what she meant by "village." She was saying "village" as in "community."

[Lancer]

I'm saying the 2 should not be confused.

[MRT144]

catholics might have lower suicide rates but then again you have to be catholic and thats no picnic in the park

[JohnT]

Nothing wrong with being Catholic.

[Dis]

Here's my theory about the U.S.

We got it too easy. Humans need challenge. Often I feel better when I challenge myself and face my fears. Often doing something dangerous makes me feel better.

I have felt suicidal in the past, and still feel suicidal from time to time.

I think the high standard of living has hurt the U.S. Even poor people have no trouble finding enough food to eat- look how fat they are. So you can't say poor people still face challenges. They face no challenge in life.

[Pekka]

Western culture rules.