New Zealand has one of the highest youth suicide rates in the developed world. Often-times these appear as "outbreaks"--a cluster of suicides occurring in small communities. The working assumption is that the news spreads amongst the small community by word of mouth, Chinese whispers, social media, and conversations around the dinner table. Everyone knows, but no-one talks about it.
The latest spate of youth suicides (five so far, one as young as ten years old) have occurred in Taupo Bay in the far north. They follow a similar outbreak in Kawerau two years ago. The tragedy is palpable. The stupidity and senselessness of the suicides overwhelming. The cold, hard reality is that there was nothing in these young lives so discouraging or so bad to justify such gross actions. That they thought there was indicates that these kids had departed from the realms of reality and truth and had entered a destructive fantasy realm. The realm in which so many of their parents live and in which our society glories.
The normal calls for "gummint" to do something have flown down in an acidic waterfall. Why acidic? Because at one level it represents a blameshift. Someone else is responsible: its certainly not us. At another level it disenfranchises a community, implying that there is a little the local folk can do to make a difference in their own families.
The deaths from the Taupo Bay area in the Far North follow the Herald on Sunday's reports on a similar cluster in Kawerau two years ago. These, and the country's relentlessly high suicide rate, are now prompting calls for a nationwide suicide prevention publicity programme similar to that used to combat depression - and for government funding to be more effectively targeted.Some of those affected by the recent spate of copy-cat suicides are calling for open conversations about these deaths. The "hush hush" approach has become popular in recent years due to the proposition that speaking about it openly risks it becoming quasi-glorified, notorious, special--the ultimate way to gain attention and to teach people a lesson. The "see no evil, speak no evil" approach is a lamentable folly. It assumes kids are not networked and don't talk.
The most critical thing of all--the thing most lacking--is that suicide needs to be placed in an interpretative context, an ethical perspective, if you will. And it is here that the modern world fails miserably.
It is surely important that parents keep open lines of communication with their children and with the wider community of youth. It is important that schools, sports clubs, and other community groups keep talking, and planning. But there is an elephant in the room which our culture finds great difficulty in talking about: namely, that death by one's own hand is an evil act. It is immoral. It is sinful. It is wrong.
The modern "guilt and pity" parlance which characterises amoral secular communities prevents the imposition of a moral framework upon so many human acts. Suicides are used to stir up guilt and extend pity--little else. There is no coherent ethical framework left to be inculcated into the next generation. Their elders have no credible toolbox to analyse and process and evaluate such human actions.
The divine law, to which all men are bound, demands that we fear God with all our heart, soul, and mind. Secondly, it requires that we love our fellow human beings. Suicide is the ultimate act of rebellion against God and man. Without such an ultimate ethical standard being brought to bear upon suicide, self-murder, there is nothing really compelling to say. The secular relativist cannot say with clarity and certainty suicide is wrong. If it works for you, do it.
Someone will say, a young teenager has little or no understanding of what "works" or not. True. But are they being told such truth by their elders? Or are they being left to tread water in the meaningless, nihilistic amoral world which their elders inhabit? Are they following in the footsteps of the nihilism they see all around them--even though they could neither spell nor pronounce the word?
The ethical foundations of our nation are pretty simple really. If it feels good, do it. Our age might get a bit upset if there are victims of your actions, but as long as it is what you really want to do, and as long as it is your decision and it does not compel others, then go to it. What is marriage? Whatever you want it to be. Is abortion moral? Of course, as long as you choose willingly. It's your right. What about assisted suicide? Naturally. It's your choice. What about non-assisted suicide. No problem.
There is the nub of the matter. If adults are not able nor prepared to condemn suicide in adults, neither can they condemn it amongst their children. If the moral framework and ethical norms of society tolerates and even glorifies adults killing themselves, getting upset when children do it is just the tiniest bit hypocritical don't you think? And teenagers can spot hypocrites a mile off.
A public propaganda campaign has been running in New Zealand--with some success. "It's Not OK" is the campaign slogan to oppose and prevent and report family violence. Try that slogan in a campaign against suicide. Not likely. It would be dashed upon the rocks of the amoral cliffs of our age. Suicide has only one victim, right? Thus, in a amoral world, it's got to be OK. If it seems good to you, do it.
Sadly, teenagers are quick learners.
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