Fridays on Defend

[jubaji]

I thought you were an Outlaw; you are going soft on me. Imagine that. Jubaji going soft!

Soft is letting criminals go scott free because someone has some fuzzy amoral aversion to authority and consequence.

[DickHardman]

Imagine that. Jubaji going soft!

i think that might have a something to do with why his wife left him

[Hardball]

Put him in prison for breaking the law. Imagine that.

I thought you were an Outlaw; you are going soft on me. Imagine that. Jubaji going soft!

[jubaji]

Put him in prison for breaking the law. Imagine that.

[Hardball]

That's the point I'm making; at a certain point, they would rather subject themselves to what is considered a "good death" in their cultural script than to live on after failing to live up to their cultural world views.

I was summarizing for you.

What about Dr. Death (Jack Kervorkian) He helped many terminally ill people commit painless suicide in exchange for a life of terminal pain. Then the Gub-A-Mint put him in prision for his efforts.

[Hardball]

The Samauri not only died with honor but they lived with honor also. Thus the notion of ritualistic suicide was only an option when their life had become dishonorable. Samauri did not fear death but they feared living in dishonor.

[DickHardman]

Work out the Introduction & Methods sections for my senior project- a retrospective survey on how socioeconomic status may effect substance abuse...

Work on a 10 page Rough Draft of a paper for my social psych class- on save face suicides...here is my outline and annotated biblio;

Suicide and Salvation
Garland Hummel
Outline

Part I- Opening paragraph with a hook and my thesis statement on how cultural scripts that characterize suicide as a “good death” may push the boundaries of Terror Management Theory.

Part II- Brief description of TMT (I will expand on this, mostly by using the articles on TMT I received during my Quantitative Research Methods class): Terror Management Theory states that the human animal has a unique and complex survival adaptation. Because we are sentient beings, and are therefore aware of our own mortality and the transience of life, we develop a system of beliefs and world views in order to cognitively overcome the ultimate overwhelming existential anxiety, the knowledge that we will all, one day, cease to be. In order to escape the awareness of death, we immerse ourselves in a cultural drama that gives us a sense of belonging to something larger than ourselves. By complying with cultural values we gain a sense of security and maintain the conviction that life is meaningful, and we are contributing to something that will surpass our corporeal selves.

Part III- TMT in Japan. I will include both the Kashima and Harihara articles here. This will lay the foundation that other aspects of TMT exist across cultures even if socially accepted forms of suicide do not.

Part IV- Cultural scripts on what constitutes a “good death”. In this section I will include passages from the Hagakure as well as both Long articles.

Part V- After examining what a “good death” is traditionally and contemporarily in Japan, I will examine what is different in suicides such as seppuku and normal suicides. This will be the Lester article applying Murray’s classification needs.

Part VI- This will be where I extend the idea of a “salvation” suicide to cultures outside of Japan, using Yamamoto’s article comparing Yukio Mishima’s embodiment of bushido to the kamun or “ethics of blood” from Albania and Kosovo.

Part VII- I will use the Long 2004 article, the Chasseguet-Smirgel article, and the essay by Marmysz to examine in depth the idea of a save face suicide from a psychological and philosophical perspective.

Part VIII- I will use Chasseguet-Smirgel article to make the link between save face suicides and terrorism, and again I will back this up with philosophical ideas from Marmysz.

Part IX- I will conclude my paper with my own interpretation of the information, followed by why I believe this topic to be of value to researchers.

-----------------------
Annotated Bibliography

An early codified set of ethics for the Japanese warrior class, the samurai. It includes topics such as seppuku, tsuifuku, and bushido, all of which deal with cultural scripts of “good deaths”.

Tsunetomo, Y. 1716. Hagakure Kikigaki.

Janine Chasseguet- Smirgel presented her essay as a way to better understand the terrorist attacks of 9-11 by examining traits thought to be common amongst suicidal terrorists. She exemplifies certain traits by citing the works of Mishima, Foucalt, and even Pierre Paulo Pasolini, in each of which are found a blend of sadism, extremist political views, suicidal ideation, and an “unconscious fantasy…the dismantling of one’s own body, together with the shattering of other bodies, provoking a corresponding dislocation of the world and a final apotheosis resulting with a fusion with God.” Although I feel the author is on the right track, she fails to take into account that Pasolini and Mishima were both atheists.

Chasseguet-Smirgel, J. 2006. The body and the world. International Congress Series. Vol. 1286. pp. 13-27.

The author examines 30 suicides under the lens of Henry Murray’s needs, citing differences in the types of needs of “unusual” suicides such as suicide pacts and ritualized, culturally accepted (to some extent at least) suicides like seppuku (Japanese abdomen cutting).

Lester, D. 1998. An examination of Shneidman’s application of Henry Murray’s classification of needs to suicidal individuals. Percept Mot Skills. Vol. 87 (1). pp. 42.

An examination of cultural scripts for what constitutes a “good death” in Japan and the United States. This article doesn’t just examine differences among the two cultures, but offers some suggestions as to subjective selections of scripts on an individual level. (i.e. sub-cultural scripts?)

Long, S. 2004. Cultural scripts for a good death in Japan and the United States: Similarities and differences. Social Science and Medicine. Vol. 58 (5). pp. 913- 928.

Yamamoto’s article is an analysis of Yukio Mishima’s psychological background in the context of his nostalgic cultural beliefs. Among the topics covered is the idea of Kanun, or the “ethics of blood” found in Albania and Kosovo and how it relates to samurai ethics like those found in the “Hagakure” and other early codified rules of the Japanese warrior class.

Yamamoto, K. 2000. Study on the ethical concepts of the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima, ultra nationalist. Coll. Anthropol. Vol. 24 (2). pp. 597-605.

This is a TMT study examining collective and individual mortality salience between Japanese and Australians with low and high self-esteem. The findings support a cultural difference between valuing an individual (individualism) and collectivism.

Kashima, E. et al. 2003. The effects of personal and collective mortality salience on individualism: Comparing Australians and Japanese with higher and lower self- esteem. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Vol. 40 (3). pp. 384-392.

Harihara conducted a study and found that TMT studies played out in a similar fashion in Japan, showing a generalization of the theory.

Harihara, M. et al. 2002. Terror Management in Japan. Asian Journal of Social Psychology. Vol. 5 (3) pp. 187-196.

Examines Japanese beliefs about a “good death” and how they have adopted into bioethical issues such as hospice care, euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide.

Long, S. 2001. Negotiating the “good death”: Japanese ambivalence about new ways to die. Ethnology. Vol. 40 (4). pp. 271-290.

This is an article linking the philosophical underpinnings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Yukio Mishima, and is primarily concerned with comparing Yukio Mishima’s work on the martial ethos of the Japanese (Sun and Steel) with Nietzsche’s Ecco Homo. Yukio Mishima is a character of interest in my topic because he himself committed sepukku. The author, John Marmysz, is an instructor of Philosophy at the Corning Community College in New York, and the author of several books on the topics of nihilism, existentialism, and the samurai. I really liked this essay, and, being a huge fan of both authors, found his observations to be quite astute. I intend to also contact him to collect more information into my topic. I found a link to his email address when I googled his name.
geinster@aol.com

Marmysz, J. (date not given) The samurai and the ubermensch: Tragic heroes. Essay.

.....**yawn**.....

[Britt]

This is the weekend Hermes Franca is here teaching a three day seminar. The first seminar was last night and it was awesome. I went out with Hermes and my instructor afterwards for a bite to eat and he's a really cool guy, really pleasant and sunny disposition. Haven't met a Brazilian yet I didn't like. They must have nice weather.

Anyway, taking off work early to get a nap before tonight's seminar. Open seminar tommorrow, go watch the fights afterward.

[Hardball]

Anybody else have trouble getting on the forumn today. It's acting really funky!!!

[Hardball]

Friday night watch a movie with the Ms, score a shot at romance. Sat. spend a couple hours working nothing but kicks, Sunday work on boxing, hit the heavy bag, speed bag and timing bag. Maybe teach a private lesson saturday evening. Maybe go to dinner on saturday and then it's my normal chores the rest of the weekend but best of all I get to sleep late saturday and sunday. Watch Shane Mosley, Miquel Cotto replay on HBO saturday night.

What's on tap with the rest of the crew?

[jubaji]

5AM lift
6AM train
walk dog, organize office, shopping, clean house
10AM train
1PM tutor
3PM tutor
assist with:
Confucious term paper
Malcolm X term paper
Physics test prep
US History test prep
Theology test prep
English Lit. test prep
Plan school interview schedule
Plan Thanksgiving break intensive session schedule
New materials for workplace ESL class
New materials for professional development class
marketing materials
college applications
7PM tutoring
walk dog
10Pm tutoring
walk dog
12PM Japanese drama viewing
3AM Sumo! on the dish
Sake
Sleep

I'm sure I've forgotten a few things in there.

[treelizard]

Friday: teach and then go to a training until 7
Saturday: grade, finish entering grades/comments on progress reports, then watch UFC with my man, unless he's still sick, in which case I will make him soup and stuff
Sunday: work my 2nd job from 3-6, finish college coursework, of course I know I'll be up all night with the grade entering... I usually try to take one day a weekend to just chill, but I don't know if I'll be able to pull it off this weekend.

[Hardball]

its ok bro, go ahead and share some of these stories. if jubaji can post 7000+ posts of garbage about breaking his own neck trying to fellate himself and fighting with dennys patrons in parking lots when he has too much to drink, you should be able to post stories about your drug fueled sexcapades from the 70s.

Actually inspite of all the weed and booze I managed to complete an Accounting degree.

[DickHardman]

Yea the 70's were awesome. I graduated high school in 1975 and went straight to college. I could tell you some stories but it would take up the whole forumn.

its ok bro, go ahead and share some of these stories. if jubaji can post 7000+ posts of garbage about breaking his own neck trying to fellate himself and fighting with dennys patrons in parking lots when he has too much to drink, you should be able to post stories about your drug fueled sexcapades from the 70s.

[DickHardman]

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvT-C8QArok[/YOUTUBE]