Meaningless Existence v. Riding It Out

Another shooting, this time it's Nebraska. But these tragedies all retread the same ideas of meaninglessness of life and the need to do something to gain some notoriety at the expense of the lives of others. Even if you think life is meaningless that's no excuse to terminate someone else's for they may not have the same view, and even if they did it'stheir choice to ride it out. If suicide is the coward's way out, then I think this latest fad is the heinous way.

I lean towards accepting suicide even though it is a selfish way to conduct yourself in respect to people who care about you; but if there aren't any or few in number and you feel the rest of the offerings of this world (that are legally available to you) aren't enticing, then why the hell not. I'm not saying it's honourable, but how many things in life are (not that that's a logical argument).

So I'm not so resistant to suicide but when a massacre of innocents is involved then the idea is no longer supportable. I know this is a redundant question because the perpetrators obvious are reckless to any wrongs so long as it serves their inner desires, but do they even consider how many lives they could potentially be ruining? The victims, their close ones, their acquaintances, the community in general, and the next person who decides to copycat the violence and massacre another dozen in their own communities. I think life is bad enough as is without having to grieve losses, but that's what violence begets is grieving. Well, also more violence, but grieving too. Sorry.

To sum up, you're allowed to brood about how life is unfair, or laze around and think existence is empty and unfulfilling (so long as you can leech off someone...uh, I'm not trying to validate my own existence...woah, what's that? Look at that UFO-thing behind you!). You can even talk to yourself on the bus or whatever and smoke pot all day until your can't keep your eyes open for five seconds. But you cross the line when you hurt other people. Okay, I mean other than the ones that volunteered to care for you. What am I saying? Go back to stupid school or get a stupid manual job. God, I've been reduced to say something I'd never have said but for self-centered scumbags.

What to do. What to do. Maybe the government can fund a hybrid institution - a mix of prison and mental institution. So you call for all the people who think life is meaningless and feel an urge to pick up a gun and start firing. Anyone who felt that they could snap at a moment's notice would be welcome. The recruited people will be put to labour and given three square meals a day and a bed in a bunker. Come to think of it, this is also like the army. They can have minimum wage but all the money is put into some sort of pension plan as they'll have no need to use money inside. The type of labour they do can be filling pot holes to cleaning the streets.

All this sounds pretty trivial and exploitative of desperate, confused individuals for cheap manual labour. It's almost Bill O'Reilly-esque and you have no idea how painful that idea is to me. But I think the key to remember is that these people are like ticking timebombs but in a way all they want is not to be a burden to their families. For an example, see AJ in The Sopranos from his suicide state to his working for a B-movie company "glad to be alive but still whining about getting people coffee" state. Oh, and getting laid was pretty helpful too. The key element is when they feel like they need to be put out of their doldrum. Then you ship them to Afghanistan with proper provisions and send them to explore those tunnels that the Taliban are supposedly using and where Bin Laden was supposed to have hidden. You can train them to do this or just let them go in raw; they do have experience with firearms.

Clearly, they'll feel alot more self-important and experience life as something less meaningless after hunting for Osama. This is also something that AJ wanted to do. It's not important that they catch anyone, with all the press reports and special-op gear they are bound to feel better about themselves. It might be a waste of money but this is the military we're talking about. If it makes any difference you can make them pay for the guns out of their pensions. Of course, you have to announce to the general population to stay clear the tunnels because the target is only "terrorists". And if in the unfortunate event that the AJs get hit, then they would have died for something worthwhile, at least in their eyes. It sounds kind of cruel when I reread it but is it not like something JD Salinger wrote in Catcher in the Rye, to paraphrase it: young men want to die for a grand and noble cause while adults only want to live for a small and even insignificant cause. At least with this plan, unlike the army, there'll be no lies and no disillusions about the purpose which is to remove the crazies from the rest of the population.

Note to self: Next topic - The narrow and broad approach to meaning of life.