Discussion Accelerationism of suicide, my thought on it

[Sn00t]

Note: I thought this would be suitable for discussion and in suicide discussion rather than politics and philosophy due to it being rather personal to me and my experience, than a general theory or argument of suicide, and wondering if other people think this way. thanks
I think that a lot of us in life can reach a certain point in life where our condition is better off to be dead, but we have a instinct of self preservation endowed to us by hundreds of millions to billion of years of evolution (complex multi-cellar life has been around for about 1-2.33 billion years). As Voltaire wrote, pondering the Roman Orator Cato's suicide, of the act of commuting suicide:

"None but a strong man can surmount the most powerful instinct of nature."

But even if our sense of self-preservation isn't overcome, it would be fallacious to think that one's existence must be worth continuing or better than being dead. What a rational person would conclude is that the transition between life and death is extremely psychologically difficult for a person, and the locks that life places on a person are meant to imprison themselves from escaping and keep harm out.

Edwin Shneidman had defined a kind of intolerable psychological pain called Psychache stemming from unmet psychological needs of love or acceptance, and has been further expanded upon in Suicidological literature. And it seems to me that psychological pain rises in a linear curve til it meets a threshold of a physical pain a person is willing to undergo to distract themselves or rid their Psychache, whereby then one is left in a position to will death or life, if one is of course in that moment able to die (like being in front of a bridge at the time of deciding).

Diagram here:



So I guess to get to the point of my post, with this model in mind, I have had thoughts of accelerating my death and wonder if people can relate in any way. Accelerationism, a term to denote accelerating the Capitalist systems of the World to lead to their own destruction, is a term I think is valid to name my philosophy of suicide. The premise you have to accept I think is life is just not worth having, and eventually life will probably get worse enough to allow lethal action. Not necessarily you have to accept the second statement, but it certainly is a good cement of confidence in accelerating death.
From my experience, my life has gotten worse and worse, from inside my head and the world outside impinging on it. My memory is worsening and understanding, and soon my awareness of complex things will seem totally irrelevant. This is made so much worse if I become a narcissistic slug which reduces to utter bitterness and pessimism, which I already kinda am. I wish I was dead long ago, and sometimes in brief moments I wish I could live to read and learn, be with friends and have fun, I know deep down this is an illusion to make me feel better.
So I've taken up smoking to force the future out of me and pursue relief in the present, will drink more to lose awareness of myself and am trying to lose all awareness for safety out on the road. It's a risky action, as it may just cause my psychological pain to inflate to unbearable levels but lethality unachieved (from Why People Die By Suicide by Thomas Joiner, lethality needs to be practiced and worked at), or push me to that point to finally accept death and act on it. I guess I can predict I'm on the track to eventual suicide, and it's only a matter of time before it happens. And the Accelerationism approach can at least lead to a lot of relief in moments, smoking is a very relaxing and clear-minded activity, and alcohol can be a wonderful relaxation of awareness.

I do think Accelerationism needs to be accompanied by constant meditation of death and its acceptance, practice of lethal actions and constant directed thought in confirming your choice for death. If you accelerate your life to pure misery alone, you've just fucked yourself and have no escape. But no doubt it's a big push I think, and any case of suicide life needs to be pretty drastic and terrible to be able to carry out. So those are my thoughts on it, just wondering if you guys have thought like this or find it useful in some bizzare way.

 

[pthnrdnojvsc]

"I do think Accelerationism needs to be accompanied by constant meditation of death and its acceptance, practice of lethal actions and constant directed thought in confirming your choice for death"

what do you mean by this statement above . can you give some hypothetical examples ?

 

[Sn00t]

What I mean is that in order to able to carry out suicide and reduce any pain in it (which ofc reducing potential pain makes it more likely you can carry it out), you have to very much internalise it into your being. If you have doubts of death and suicide, irrationally that is, you have to inscribe in your consciousness a deep acceptance in order to carry it out. People I can think of like Ted Kaczynski or Socrates have had deep convictions of their deaths, even if these were outside of depression or psychological pain (Ted may have as initially he tried suicide in response to having his anti-technology argument rejected by court, and then with cancer might have died due to the pain of it).

With lethality, Thomas Joiner in his theory of suicide and in psychotherapy and finding what is a red flag for people committing suicide says that someone to be at risk needs to have a lethal potentiality. This means they can carry out a lethal action due to tolerance, courage or fearlessness or of such a factor. This is obtained from practice, this includes people going to the bridges regularly or dealing with firearms or cutting to obtain this tolerance or fearless. Thomas Joiner documents some good examples of this in his book, including his father who had committed suicide, who had become quite tolerant to violence over the years and had rather gruesomely cut his wrists and stabbed his heart.

And by directing thought of death, it's just making sure your actions are conforming with your desire for death. For me, this is a lack of awareness on the road, probed by my friend being in a car crash a few days ago which I think can be a somewhat okay death if done right (this is rather selfish tho, as the driver will probably be severely traumatised, my apology will be probably writing a note in my pocket for them to find if it's not destroyed). And I think journaling or writing in a diary or meditation is good for instilling these as internalised parts of yourself, but this kinda comes back to first part. Hope this clears up my conception

 

[wiggy]

I think that's a very well thought out way of looking at things.

I don't like the conclusion of piecemeal suicide though(such as by taking up smoking). The one big advantage suicide offers you is that it can be done in one fell swoop, and all suicidal intentions are completely reversible until you actually go through with it. People change their outlook on life all the time, you won't know how you'll feel about death 20 years from now. Even the biology of your brain changes as you age, so it's possible you'll have the exact same philodophical beliefs but they won't cause you the same torment. It's one thing to accelerate ideation, but I don't think you should engage in physical self harm any earlier than necessary.

 

[Weltgeist]

Your post is very well-written, you clearly have a talent for writing, and you seem to be a knowledgeable individual who has delved deeply into the topic with significant effort. However, allow me to raise an objection - do you believe your reasoning is infallible or that your assertions hold objective truth? If so, how can you substantiate that? Because sometimes I am visited, by the thought that with logic, one can prove both A and -A, provided they are sufficiently skilled. (might be wrong tho)
Also, I was taken aback (in some bizarre way) by the final paragraph and the measures you propose for someone who finds themselves at the last rung of despair. It struck me as a somewhat counterproductive suggestion.
Regarding capitalist accelerationism and its connection to personal trajectories, it seems a bit far-fetched to me and comes across as a crude generalization. Nonetheless I felt slightly moved when you touched on the subject of memory because my own memory has taken a steep decline (I will get through this w.e).
Keep up the smoking it helps me a lot too. But I disagree firmly with your stance on alcohol.
Oh and one last thing, in a part of your post, you say:
"I wish I was χ long ago, and sometimes in brief moments I wish I could live to read and learn, be with friends and have fun. I know deep down this is an illusion to make me feel better."
But how do you know it's an illusion, or that it's futile? Perhaps I didn't quite understand this part.
In any case, nice post :3 I've had similar hazy thoughts before, but I usually push them away because they are foul clouds blocking the sun of my bliss. Sometimes, a little cloud might be charming, well-formed, and perhaps even resemble something real - crafted, though, from the dirtiest materials and vapors. Yet even then, I cast it out of my field of view.

 

[Sn00t]

Re - do you believe your reasoning is infallible or that your assertions hold objective truth? If so, how can you substantiate that? Because sometimes I am visited, by the thought that with logic, one can prove both A and -A, provided they are sufficiently skilled. (might be wrong tho)

My reasoning can be wrong yes, but I am a kind of Cartesian at heart that I don't think I can be mistaken about my experience at a given moment. However, I don't think it is wrong, as I do think my 'model' does conform with what philosophers and psychologists have thought of the issues, my own experience and historical examples (there was post here that suicide can be done in pure objectivity as a solution to life, but I do not find this convincing). On regarding whether A is true or not true, I think it can happen because we are not sufficiently educated in a topic and we find confusion with it. For example, proving things in mathematics needs a clear understanding of the concepts and tools of that proof, otherwise we can get pseudoproofs based on misunderstood and wrong ideas. This can be applied also to sciences like economics, with fuzzy understanding of empirical concepts and studies. I think my reasoning lies on fairly elementary and easily verifiable reasons and ideas, unless you think otherwise which I am happy to address :)

Also, I was taken aback (in some bizarre way) by the final paragraph and the measures you propose for someone who finds themselves at the last rung of despair. It struck me as a somewhat counterproductive suggestion.

I don't recommend this for everyone, just people who rationally know their life is not worth living and want to fight irrational instincts that force them in the game

Regarding capitalist accelerationism and its connection to personal trajectories, it seems a bit far-fetched to me and comes across as a crude generalization.

Mmm I don't see what you mean. Yes capitalism as an economic system of markets and profit incentives is not really corresponding to an individual, but the analogy is taken from Deluze and ofc Marx that the seeds of destruction lie in Capitalism and we need to accelerate it so we can achieve Socialism or whatever economic system alternative. Also you don't have to accept this theory or Capitalism to see the analogy

Nonetheless I felt slightly moved when you touched on the subject of memory because my own memory has taken a steep decline (I will get through this w.e).

Stings, hope it gets better

Keep up the smoking it helps me a lot too. But I disagree firmly with your stance on alcohol.

Yea fair enough, it's more personal than general

Oh and one last thing, in a part of your post, you say:
"I wish I was χ long ago, and sometimes in brief moments I wish I could live to read and learn, be with friends and have fun. I know deep down this is an illusion to make me feel better."
But how do you know it's an illusion, or that it's futile? Perhaps I didn't quite understand this part.

It's an illusion in that it promises a good time when there is none, which keeps me living for that good time. It may be good in he moment to imagine it, but what it points to isnt true. Evident by personal experience for me, as this psychological phenomena is present in my psychi (and evidently others, David Benatar writes of this in The Human Predicament and Better to Have Never Been)

In any case, nice post :3 I've had similar hazy thoughts before, but I usually push them away because they are foul clouds blocking the sun of my bliss. Sometimes, a little cloud might be charming, well-formed, and perhaps even resemble something real - crafted, though, from the dirtiest materials and vapors. Yet even then, I cast it out of my field of view.

Thank you, and I do hope you can avoid taking my advice. Thanks for reading my post and the kind words, and of course your objections are greatly appreciated

I think that's a very well thought out way of looking at things.

I don't like the conclusion of piecemeal suicide though(such as by taking up smoking). The one big advantage suicide offers you is that it can be done in one fell swoop, and all suicidal intentions are completely reversible until you actually go through with it. People change their outlook on life all the time, you won't know how you'll feel about death 20 years from now. Even the biology of your brain changes as you age, so it's possible you'll have the exact same philodophical beliefs but they won't cause you the same torment. It's one thing to accelerate ideation, but I don't think you should engage in physical self harm any earlier than necessary.

Reply to Wiggy: I don't really mean using smoking as a method to die, like getting cancer or such at ages of 40 and such, as this takes a long time and is filled with terrible health problems. Not to mention, cancer is an awful way to go. What I mean is if you are addicted to cigarettes and chained to them, you probably will have less incentive to think this is worth doing. You'll probably think "well, I've shot myself in the foot now, no turning back now". It's risky, but can be a major disincentivising agent of living on a torturous life

 

[Valhala]

The topic of suicide is a complex topic, a discourse that transcends religious, psychological, psychiatric, philosophical, social attitudes and at the same time sublimates them into one whole. I recommend you to read the great study of the Austrian philosopher and essayist Amery Jean On Suicide: A Discourse on Voluntary Death where this topic is brilliantly and multi-layered from a cognitive ontological aspect as I'm sure it can provide you with some answers.

 

[Sn00t]

Thanks I will give it a read