BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Nine die in Japan 'suicide pacts'. After reading this article, I immediately thought of the current Ig Nobel winners and the study tying country music to suicides. I then thought about a recent discussion with a Chinese American colleague. She just had a recent trip to China and told me about her worries both as a pedestrian in the big cities and as a mother with her son traveling with her. I realize that this is purely anecdotal, but it speaks of the wider social perceptions.
Can you imagine living in a society where each human life has a tangible dollar value? She tells me that as a pedestrian in China, you worry about getting in an accident with a moving vehicle. The worry is not only because of the crazy traffic whizzing by you on streets where trucks, bicycles, and scooters share everything (even on what you'd think of as highways), but you worry about the drivers after they've hit you. She tells me that drivers have a twisted belief: if they get into accidents with bicyclists or pedestrians, they will attempt to kill you by running over you twice or more, after having hit you by accident to ensure that you're dead. The reasoning? Well, it is more costly to support you as an invalid or handicapped person throughout the rest of your life than to have you killed outright so that they can just pay a "flat fee." You see, in China, and in many other parts of the world (I can vouch for Vietnam), if a person gets into an accident, an acceptable route of action would be to negotiate how much money can be exchanged to avoid further litigation -- and this is perfectly acceptable legally.
How does this tie in with the increase in the suicide rate in Japan? I wanted to point out that the value of life is perceived differently in different societies. I personally think that because China and Japan have so many people in any given urban area, people get numb -- a face is just another face. Perhaps some Japanese, pushed by societal pressures to the brink of emotional stability, feel that their lost life is just another life among the millions and millions of people already living -- one less mouth to feed, or one less burden on society.
Perhaps these actions are a result of a species (humans) living in overcrowded conditions. If so, what does this tell us? Maybe I'll try to live a healthy life by avoiding the cities and living a good portion of my life in solitude -- with my broadband internet connection, a TV with satellite, and all other amenities included (running water, electricity, etc.).
Posted by johnvu at October 13, 2004 10:47 PM