How To Not Make Suicide the Next #MeToo Movement
The #MeToo movement began late last year when many
well-known women emerged with accusations of sexual misconduct against powerful
men in the wake of Hollywood Producer and Major Democratic Donor Harvey
Weinstein’s fall from grace. Many of
these allegations turned out to be true, others turned out to have no factual
basis behind them.
Last week, fashion designer Kate Spade and chef-turned-TV
personality Anthony Bourdain committed suicide.
The suicides of these high-profile individuals should highlight the fact
that fame and fortune do not necessarily serve as an antidote to the symptoms
that often lead people to commit suicide; namely nihilism and despair.
According to blogger Matt Walsh, “We live in an empty
culture. We have fled from God, from meaning, from purpose, and the suicide
epidemic is a direct result. People are wallowing in despair, believing that
there is no transcendent truth or beauty to be found in life.” Those looking for cures for nihilism might
want to take a look at this video by Lauren Southern
and Brittany Pettibone, titled “5 Cures for Nihilism.”
Based on my non-expert analysis, two of the most
common contributing factors to suicide include heartbreak and joblessness,
neither of which seemed to apply to Bourdain and Spade; both of whom had achieved
the American dream by obtaining significant others and successful careers, not
to mention offspring.
Unfortunately, the suicide epidemic risks becoming the
next #MeToo movement, as a large number of Americans apparently believe the
M*A*S*H theme song, “Suicide is Painless,” has a degree of truth to it. According to the Center for
Disease Control, nearly 45,000 Americans committed suicide in 2016, which
made it the tenth leading cause of death.
In 2016, suicide served as the second leading cause of death among young
people between the ages of 10 and 34.
Many teens commit suicide because of bullying, which
has only gotten worse in the age of social media; which encourages people to
compare themselves to others. Not
surprisingly, many people feel that their lives come up short after viewing a
collage of happy pictures from their peers. I did not really have this problem,
considering the fact that I did not use social media during high school.
Unfortunately, living a successful life requires
taking a lot of risks. Those risks do
not always pay off, and when they don’t; suicide may often times seem
palatable. But suicide does not come without consequences. As a Catholic, suicide
would effectively cut me off from the dream of eternal life; which serves as
the light at the end of the tunnel as I work to find my way through this
imperfect world.
Forget about the religious implications of suicide for
a moment. Suicide also has consequences
for those we leave behind. While
constant rejection from potential significant others as well as potential
employers may give me a feeling that I don’t matter, there are many people that
I do matter to; especially my parents.
While it may seem like a good way to alleviate stress, misery, or
disappointment in the short term, committing suicide would definitely turn the lives of those
closest to me upside down. In addition,
Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain mattered to a lot of people as well, including
their significant others, children, and co-workers, and the many people who
benefitted from their contributions to our society.
To borrow a line from the song “Everybody Plays the
Fool”, “Falling in love is such an easy thing to do but there’s no guarantee
that the one you love is gonna love you.”
The song lyrics could change a little bit, such as by replacing “the one
you love” with “the one you think you love.”
After all, people in high school don’t really know what they want in a
significant other, including myself. I
did not even start getting into politics until my senior year of high
school. I have come to realize that in
order to achieve and appreciate success, I must first experience failure; no
matter how much emotional anguish that may cause. I have since come to the conclusion that any
girl to the left of Ann Coulter is too far left for me.
Like nearly everyone else on the planet, I have had to
endure quite a few travails; most notably academic failure and social
rejection. During my first semester of my sophomore year, I got a C and a C-,
not managing to even come close to making the Dean’s List. At times, I wondered if I had what it took to
get through college; I even pondered dropping out. It took a while but
I eventually bounced back and graduated cum laude.
Throughout much of my life, I have had a dark cloud
hanging over my head in the form of intermittent nausea. I could have gone a couple of years without
experiencing it but nausea has certainly diminished my quality of life for the
past couple of years. My nausea has affected my ability to completely enjoy
myself at amusement parks. One day two
summers ago, my town held its annual waterfire, which it refers to as
“Riverglow.” By the time my parents and
I walked downtown, I had developed a bad case of nausea and thus we returned home. I felt terrible for ruining the night for
my parents. As I returned home for the
evening, I thought to myself, I cannot go through the rest of my life living
like this.
Had I decided to give into the despair of that
particular movement, I never would have had the opportunity to experience one
of the greatest experiences of my life to date: my three-month internship in
“the Swamp.” It took me quite a while
after graduating college last spring to find this kind of opportunity, after getting rejected from a
few internships and full-time job opportunities. Not surprisingly, all of that
rejection really did not help my self-esteem. However, six days before the
application deadline, I decided to apply for the National Journalism
Center National
Journalism Center
So before long, I ended up living in “the swamp.” The National Journalism
Center
Newsbusters still lets me write articles for them on a
freelance basis, for which I am extremely grateful. I don’t make a lot of money doing it but I
still find myself in a better position than I was at this time last year. While I have still yet to get a Drudge hit,
the crown jewel for all Newsbusters writers, or find one of my articles
mentioned on “Hannity,” the only way that will ever happen is if I keep
trying.
I have taken several initiatives in an effort to curb my nausea proactively; including by avoiding caffeine. I first began cutting back on caffeine last year after I decided not to go to one of my nephew’s baseball games because I felt nauseous after drinking two glasses of caffeinated soda. I had previously had three glasses of Coke at The Cheesecake Factory less than a month earlier and all hell broke loose. These developments led me to believe that I had caffeine-induced anxiety disorder. I decided to give up caffeine altogether when I headed down to “the Swamp.” I accidentally drank some caffeine without realizing it on my trip back from “the Swamp” and I did notice some nausea as a result. To my surprise, Barq’s Root Beer has caffeine while Diet Barq’s does not.
I also take a vomit bag with my wherever I go just in
case the worst case scenario plays out.
During my time in “the Swamp,” I did remarkably well. I did carry Pepto-Bismol with me, especially
on the days where I would have to go into the city as opposed to going to
Newsbusters or the NJC headquarters, both located within a half-mile radius in Northern Virginia. I
found myself taking quite a bit of it on the day that I went to CPAC. While I did not sleep well the first couple
of nights, I eventually got used to living away from home. I definitely had a right to be nervous,
considering the fact that I had never lived away from home for such an extended
period of time.
For every reason to commit suicide, there are probably
ten reasons not to. I hope to some day
get to a point in my life where I get tired of winning. Certainly, there are times when I feel that
day can’t come soon enough. But because
of my internship in “the Swamp,” I have a feeling that the day will come sooner
rather than later.
It certainly does not help that the Cultural
Revolution has effectively abolished the concept of the sanctity of life. A few states have legalized euthanasia, also
known as assisted suicide, where doctors actually give terminally ill patients
pills that cause them to die; with the consent of the patients.
Conventional wisdom says that prescribing
anti-depressants will help prevent people from committing suicide. The CDC found that the
suicide rate has increased by more than 30 percent from 1999 to 2016 in the majority
of U.S.
I copied this page from one of my brother’s yearbooks. At times it seems quite impossible to follow the advice laid out in the caption of the top picture but we could all do ourselves a favor by following the advice laid out in the caption of the bottom picture as often as possible.
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