Self-Immolation Redux
This post may make no sense to most of you, but since it's my blog, I can indulge these purely philosophical wanderings. :-)
So, I just saw the pictures at the left, courtesy of an anonymous emailer in my inbox, and needless to say I was shocked. I not entirely sure if they reference a recent situation or if they are reposts of a past incident. Some investigation seems to show that the pictures were taken earlier this month (October, 2007).
No so much at the picture because setting oneself on fire in protest of some situation -- while extreme -- is a time-honored method of self-expression. Perhaps it's the ULTIMATE in self-expression at outrage because basically, you're laying your life on your convictions. Some of you may remember seeing pictures of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese buddhist monk who self-immolated in 1963 to protest oppression of his Buddhist brethren. His ultimate act of defiance led to a series of events that toppled a regime.
It's happened many times since; most recently I am aware of an instance in 2006, when a Chicago man self-immolated on the side of the Kennedy Expressway protesting the Iraq War.
No, I wasn't shocked at what I saw. What I was shocked at was the string of dumb-assed comments that accompanied this woman's ultimate statement. I've provided a link to the actual page, so you can see for yourself the quality of commentary provided by the peanut gallery.
You see, the comments displayed a complete lack of any historical reference, and I asked myself, do most people not value learning about even the things that confuse, and baffle us the most. I kept scrolling down, hoping to see someone say "YOU IDIOTS...she's making a statement. It's called ritual self-immolation, it's a form of protest, and it was used blah blah blah..."
I remember the first time I heard about self-immolation. It was the '01, when a group of Chinese self-immolated in Tiananmen Square in China to protest the Chinese government's treatment of members of the religious sect Falun Gong. I was so intrigued with what would make one do such a thing, that I investigated and I learned about what real conviction was. Please understand, I am certainly not planning to self-immolate. I don't know if I feel that strongly about any worldly issue to do such a thing. But it was interesting nonetheless.
My ultimate question is: do most people not take the time to think about that which is unusual, even frightening, or weird to them?
Or maybe I'm asking too deep a question.
So, I just saw the pictures at the left, courtesy of an anonymous emailer in my inbox, and needless to say I was shocked. I not entirely sure if they reference a recent situation or if they are reposts of a past incident. Some investigation seems to show that the pictures were taken earlier this month (October, 2007).No so much at the picture because setting oneself on fire in protest of some situation -- while extreme -- is a time-honored method of self-expression. Perhaps it's the ULTIMATE in self-expression at outrage because basically, you're laying your life on your convictions. Some of you may remember seeing pictures of Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese buddhist monk who self-immolated in 1963 to protest oppression of his Buddhist brethren. His ultimate act of defiance led to a series of events that toppled a regime.
It's happened many times since; most recently I am aware of an instance in 2006, when a Chicago man self-immolated on the side of the Kennedy Expressway protesting the Iraq War.
No, I wasn't shocked at what I saw. What I was shocked at was the string of dumb-assed comments that accompanied this woman's ultimate statement. I've provided a link to the actual page, so you can see for yourself the quality of commentary provided by the peanut gallery.
You see, the comments displayed a complete lack of any historical reference, and I asked myself, do most people not value learning about even the things that confuse, and baffle us the most. I kept scrolling down, hoping to see someone say "YOU IDIOTS...she's making a statement. It's called ritual self-immolation, it's a form of protest, and it was used blah blah blah..."
I remember the first time I heard about self-immolation. It was the '01, when a group of Chinese self-immolated in Tiananmen Square in China to protest the Chinese government's treatment of members of the religious sect Falun Gong. I was so intrigued with what would make one do such a thing, that I investigated and I learned about what real conviction was. Please understand, I am certainly not planning to self-immolate. I don't know if I feel that strongly about any worldly issue to do such a thing. But it was interesting nonetheless.
My ultimate question is: do most people not take the time to think about that which is unusual, even frightening, or weird to them?
Or maybe I'm asking too deep a question.
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To put it succintly... No they don't. Americans aren't deep thinkers as this will prove.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=624FxhJlVM0
Our country is in real educational trouble. I keep hearing phrases about making learning relevant, and while I agree that some of what you learn should be relevant to one's own experience, I contend that part of learning is to expose one to other ways of thinking in an effort to help one learn to think critically.