I’m not sure where I’m going with this so bear with me.
In the history of evil and cruelty I assume there are many who felt suicidal because they are hungry.
(Perhaps a psychiatrist would say there’s hunger and starvation then there’s a mental disorder like “too poor to earn enough to feed oneself disorder” that’s a distinctly different thing from hunger and starvation. Brain scans of those with “too poor to feed oneself disorder” might also show biological differences in the brain that would be represented as proof of a brain defect and a disease by psychiatrists.)
In the history of heartlessness the response “so what” or “get over it” has been in the mind as thoughts or spoken in reply to “I’m so hungry I’m suicidal” or “I’m can’t feed my child and I want to die”.
Can you imagine how awful it is to be hungry and suicidal? It is something that has changed across centuries and generations the sort of empathy for hunger irrespective of the presence of suicidal suffering, feelings and thoughts.
(I admit that the types of mental diversity and mental suffering oppressed by psychiatry would be more likely to face hunger and suicidal hunger before the creation of the asylum system from which the institution of psychiatry was born )
Today and especially in the last half century there’s been many battles fought against hunger and starvation. The earliest example I can remember of this fight against evil and cruelty was Live Aid.
Today there is a different mentality far removed from “so what if you are starving” or “get used to starving”. None of the battles against hunger and starvation would be won if “it’s not that bad to be hungry” prevailed.
The individuals and organisations and movements who have won the battles against hunger and starvation whether by intent or not have fought against the prevail of evil and cruelty and the apathy of heartlessness to win the fight for the fulfillment of a basic need. By intent or not they reached for something as beautiful as the prevention of suicidality and the objective of living in safety from suicidality is.
This tiny little bit of good pales in comparison to all the evil and cruelty and heartlessness that prevails now. You might not recognise that the circumstances and conditions that used to exist that meant so many went hungry is evil and cruelty and the apathy of heartlessness but you should do.
The battles won against the existence of hunger and starvation are for the war* for basic needs. Hunger is specifically a physical need but it can lead to the worst state of conscious existence and the worst state of mental suffering which is what being suicidal is.
(*- I class a war as the objective achieved by the many battles.)
I assume those who go to fight against hunger do not do it for suicidal individuals. They didn’t do it because they recognise human cruelty and evil is the primary cause of why suicidal individuals become suicidal and stay suicidal.
They do it for other reasons. I don’t know all the reasons used by those who fight against hunger but I do believe there’s a certain level of heart instead of the apathy of heartlessness that drives them to prevent hunger and rapidly end hunger wherever it exists.
Their efforts however do affect the tragedies of suicidal individuals. They have achieved a tiny bit of the objective of safety from suicidality and the prevention of suicidality. Never before are so many safe from feeling suicidal because they are hungry as they are now.
But can you imagine what you would face a scant few centuries ago? If you lived in the times when you would face “so what if you are hungry and starving?” and you were victim to the evil and cruelty that prevails how would you feel? Would you be unhappy and miserable and suffering because you are hungry? Would you feel suicidal because you feel hungry and keep on feeling hungry and there’s nothing you can do? When you live when no one cares about how awful it feels to feel hungry and keep on feeling hungry and keep on feeling suicidal because you keep on feeling hungry how would you feel about the hope of the mercy and protection of assisted suicide?
This is the first point I want you to take from this post. You must recognise there are evils and cruelties you would be glad to never be born than be born and risk facing. You must recognise there are things worse than death. If you lived a few centuries ago and you faced the apathy of the heartless “get over it” or “so what” or “it’s not that bad” when you are hungry and keep on feeling hungry and keep on feeling suicidal because you are hungry do you think you would be best served by continuing to be forced to live…there is no question. You don’t want to live when the apathy of the heartless – in the example it’s just one domain of the evil and cruelty of accepting hunger as something you should be expected to face and get used to – prevails.
The second point is the objective stated as one of these phrases is possible: the objective of living in safety from suicidality; the prevention of suicidal feelings and thoughts; the protection of something as precious as an individual’s will to live. Those who won the battles against hunger and starvation don’t do it for suicidal individuals but irrespective of their intent they serve the protection of suicidal individuals by what’s so important to a suicidal individual which is “I wish I never became suicidal”.
Point 3 is the competency to care
The fight against the evil and cruelty that’s the primary cause of why suicidal individuals become suicidal and stay suicidal. This is what care is from an anti-psychiatry truth.
One battle of this war has had a lot of success. The fight against hunger.
It is by intent or not that one basic need is battled for that’s what the individuals and organisations and movements against hunger have won time and again. It is a basic need to be free from hunger.
They didn’t do it because the things that make suicidal individuals want to die represents the things that harm others greatly. They didn’t do it because the they recognise the reasons suicidal individuals have to die are a path to recognising what are basic human mental needs by how the absence of the respect and protection and fulfilment of these basic needs you all have profoundly affects the weak who are made suicidal. They didn’t do it because they recognise the things what make suicidal individuals become suicidal and stay suicidal are the product of unacceptable evil and cruelty.
(Again it’s why I fight for the safety I can only achieve in death that the monsters who call themselves the human race have so generously given me so many personal experiences to prove I can’t live in safety amongst monsters like you the monsters who call themselves the human race.)
But if you do want to serve the objective of the better future sooner then you have to recognise the basic needs of conscious beings. These needs are never more clear than by what happens in the absence of the respect and protection and fulfilment of these most basic needs that then causes the worst state of conscious existence and the worst state of mental suffering to exist.
It is the competency to care about one and all that the first step is to recognise these basic needs by what makes suicidal individuals become suicidal and stay suicidal. It is to recognise the primary cause of why suicidal individuals become suicidal and stay suicidal is the prevail of evil and cruelty and the apathy of the heartless.
(Again it’s why I fight for the safety I can only achieve in death that the monsters who call themselves the human race have so generously given me so many personal experiences to prove I can’t live in safety amongst monsters like you the monsters who call themselves the human race.)
But it’s also to recognise what you must recognise by the principle of humanisation that’s what I have that’s different from psychiatric and mental health care. We the weak, the sensitive, the fragile who become suicidal and stay suicidal by the prevail of evil and cruelty in this civilisation of monsters we represent the great suffering of the many who are not suicidal*. This is the truth you’ll never have when you dehumanise suicidal individuals as mentally ill.
(*I make this point elsewhere by talking about suicidal individuals like we’re the canaries in the mine. When miners went to work in the mines they risked dying because of invisible toxic gases. So they took canaries in cages into the mine. The invisible toxic gases would kill the canaries first before they killed the miners so the miners were saved. The canaries are like we weak and fragile and sensitive who become suicidal and stay suicidal because of the prevailing evil and cruelty and non suicidal individuals are like the miners in this analogy. We are the warning that represents the suffering of non suicidal individuals.)
This is the end of the points so let me add another element.
I read about someone recently who feels suicidal because their life lacks meaning. Those who label themselves as human beings might not need to have meaning to existence. But we who label ourselves as conscious beings this is one of our basic needs.(.. perhaps I should just my say “my needs”?)
You can face this one specific issue of meaning to exist with “so what” or “get used to it” or “it’s not that bad to have a meaningless existence”. But you will never save suicidal individuals or any conscious beings this way and in fact what you will do is make access to assisted suicide even more invaluable.
Meaning to exist is an important mental need. It’s just like other mental needs you can recognise by the consequences of these needs not being recognised or protected or fulfilled by what makes suicidal individuals become suicidal and stay suicidal.
You know what is perhaps as sad as everything else? Politicians have a modicum of this feeling of a meaningful existence I assume. They don’t recognise this basic need because it’s fulfilled and this parallels how the will to live is not protected by those who have not lost it so don’t know how precious it is. So they don’t fight for it to protect it.
But it is a basic mental need for conscious beings to have some meaning to exist. Perhaps not for all of the monsters who call themselves the human race but it is still a basic mental need.
No doubt there’s the pain of the fight too and that’s another factor. But it’s to recognise the basic needs of conscious beings by recognising them from what makes suicidal individuals become suicidal and stay suicidal.
The fight for the objective of living in safety from suicidality and the prevention of suicidality is a fight not just for the protection of the weak who become suicidal because of the absence of the respect and protection and fulfilment of these basic needs. It is a war that does serve one and all.
The points I make elsewhere about the necessity of the legalisation of assisted suicide are structured on being affected by how suicidal individuals feel. But there are so many other benefits borne from the humanisation of suicidal individuals that defines the protection of the weak. This is the basis for care and the competency to care is based upon. Being affected by how suicidal individuals feel. It’s never happened before.
You do recognise that all the weak are protected by the battles won to protect against hunger? But do you see the war of which the fight against hunger is but one battle like I do? It’s the war for care based on the most basic empathy to recognise just how beyond awful it is to become suicidal and stay suicidal.
Without this most basic compassion what do you think is going to happen to something like me living amongst monsters like you?
I am better off having never been born than to live to face what I face. The competency to care does not exist yet. I am one of the legion of the damned and we the legion of the damned are better off having never been born than live amongst monsters like the monsters who call themselves the human race. Because you think you can care but you don’t recognise the difference between cruelty and care and that’s the truth from all the personal experiences the monsters who call themselves the human race have given me of the absolutely flawless cruelty the monsters who call themselves the human race force me to live to perfect…as if my suffering will never satiate the evil at your cores even when I’m suicidal already.
You might think I write here about hope. Let me make it clear how I feel by what I have said already.
This tiny little bit of good pales in comparison to all the evil and cruelty and heartlessness that prevails now. You might not recognise that the circumstances and conditions that used to exist that meant so many went hungry is evil and cruelty and the apathy of heartlessness but you should do.
Who else can expect an individual to keep on feeling hungry or keep on feeling suicidal? But that’s what the monsters who call themselves the human race believe is a basis for care.
a thing that defines the competency to care 