solitary flight

§75 Suicide is for everyday people

Suicide is for everyday people.

“Yes, a death for many has here been devised that glorifies itself as life: truly, a heart-felt service to all preachers of death! I call it the state where everyone, good and bad, is a poison-drinker: the state where everyone, good and bad, loses himself: the state where universal slow suicide is called — life.” Thus spoke Zarathustra.

In History of Suicide, Minois recognizes its timeless in that it is for everyday reasons: “poverty, illness, physical suffering, fear of punishment, honor, humiliation, love, and jealousy.”[2] Robert Litman writes: “Deep down, there is a suicidal trend in all of us. This self-destructiveness is tamed, controlled, and overcome through our healthy identifications, ego defenses, and constructive habits of living and loving.”[3]

Chatteron makes suicide a Romantic gesture. Willie Loman makes it a gesture for everyone. Suicide is for you and suicide is for me.

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Minois, History, 9
Litman, “Freud on Suicide,” 339.