Welcome to the Third Degree: Tough, Brief, Weekly  Interrogations on matters public and private that force thinking and response. This Sunday we begin a new, and occasional,  series “Articles of Faith”, and there are many, but, today, we target:  Suicide

  • What is an article of faith?
  • Secular or religious, is  an article of faith something so unswervingly believed  that challenge or doubt are not considered or allowed?  Absolute  conviction, whether  true or not?
  • Does application of those words illuminate the dangers of such beliefs and, perhaps, explain resulting, historical catastrophes large and small?
  • Is there room in The Third Degree for such artifice?
  • By example, should suicide in/of America be considered critically because, as a matter of great conviction or article of  faith, suicide, though not illegal,  is considered wrong, reprehensible, and preventable?
  • Is suicide eradication, or diminution (to what level) just a matter of sufficient attention, money and treatment?
  • Do personal guilt and sorrow  season judgement and action?
  • Does review of data, so much of it just estimated, even contradictory,  provide enough information for summary evaluation?
  • Given 49,000 or so U.S. suicides per year, representing less than 2/100ths of 1 percent of the population, does this minuscule number justify the levels of government and private expenditure and effort well north of 8 Billion dollars annually while  suicide numbers, though somewhat variant, have not changed much over many years?
  • What judgements can be made, when leaving out a post WW2 surge, by noting that the  suicide rate has  stayed within a fairly narrow statistical  band over the years with increased drug use and overdose causing numbers to rise a bit plus increased incidence of elderly(75 plus) white men checking out early?
  • Clearly another instance of white supremacy or maybe manifestation of not wanting to be a burden?
  • Does a side bar, data point of roughly 25,000 U.S, murders/year cast any shadows worthy of light?
  • On a political note, what arguments did John Adams muster that Democracies commit suicide and Madison too, in Federalist 10,  pushing for a constitutional republic to ward off demise?
  • If the national suicide rate of  successful “democratic” civilizations is roughly 200-250 years with freedoms eventually sacrificed for comfort and government control  versus reliance on individual resilience and responsibility, are there pragmatic lessons to employ rather than articles of faith?
  • A matter of conviction?

Socrates reminds:  “The unexamined life is not worth living. “ The answers and actions are yours.