View Full Version : Self immolation in Washington DC
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-06/man-dies-after-setting-himself-alight-in-washington-dc/5001166
Can't help thinking how shocking it must have been for the people who tried to help him.
Platapus
10-05-13, 06:36 PM
If he did set himself on fire, that is a pretty dramatic way to make a statement.
Is there only one witness to him pouring the gas on himself?
If I saw someone fully engulfed in fire, I would wonder if I would be doing him a favor by trying to put out the fire. Sounds like he died in a lot of pain. :nope:
Tribesman
10-05-13, 08:00 PM
If I saw someone fully engulfed in fire, I would wonder if I would be doing him a favor by trying to put out the fire. Sounds like he died in a lot of pain. :nope:
Its a hard call.
I know I should have let this fella just burn as he would have died quicker, I think if it happened again I should do just that, I know that if it happens again I probably would end up trying the same again.
Stealhead
10-05-13, 08:49 PM
Someone did that in DC back during the Vietnam War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Morrison
Made me think of that too.
This man killed himself to make a statement, but does anyone know what it was?
Jimbuna
10-06-13, 04:55 AM
Makes one wonder about a persons state of mind if they are prepared to do this sort of thing to themselves :nope:
Cybermat47
10-06-13, 06:46 AM
Police say a man who died after setting himself on fire at the iconic National Mall in Washington DC will have to be identified using DNA and dental records.
Police would not comment on whether the victim had doused himself in petrol
Given that he was thanking the people who helped him, I think that this is just another case of the media distorting the facts to get more views :dead:
Someone did that in DC back during the Vietnam War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Morrison
I didn't know that this had happened in the US during Vietnam, I knew of Thuch Quang Duc, which is up there in the famous Vietnam photos section but didn't know a chap from the US had done the same thing.
Does make me wonder what this chaps motivation was.
u crank
10-06-13, 07:21 AM
Very sad indeed. Thankfully he didn't try to kill a bunch of people first, which seems to be the way these things go.
Does make me wonder what this chaps motivation was.
Apparently whenever someone does something extreme others are driven to copy cat it.
Apparently whenever someone does something extreme others are driven to copy cat it.
Someone should have told him that the Vietnam war finished a few decades ago though...
Someone should have told him that the Vietnam war finished a few decades ago though...
I was talking about Morrison but there have been plenty of self immolation's since then. Besides with todays access to information time doesn't necessarily obscure events like it used to.
Platapus
10-06-13, 12:57 PM
Apparently whenever someone does something extreme others are driven to copy cat it.
I suppose it would be in bad taste to make a comment about immolation emulation?
(and I wonder why I don't have any friends) :D
Aktungbby
10-06-13, 04:26 PM
I didn't know that this had happened in the US during Vietnam, I knew of Thuch Quang Duc, which is up there in the famous Vietnam photos section but didn't know a chap from the US had done the same thing.
Does make me wonder what this chaps motivation was.
Actually, it All started with the philosopher Savonarola who showed up for a scholarly religious debate and wound up martyred on a pile of faggots-Inquisition style. Taking note, Martin Luther notably showed up for HIS great debate with Tetzel on indulgences( shekels racket paid to avoid purgatory to the Borgia popes and a serious financial drain on the Hanseatic States) with the Elector of Saxony's picked bodyguard of 100 Teutonic Knights in full armor and survived the debate unscathed. " Protect the little monk!" and the world changed! Thank god, as I attended a Lutheran Midwest college. The survivors of Magdeburg weren't so grateful however. Dying Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,(thrice wounded in the Civil WAR) overhearing his grieving maid say "no one dies with warm feet" came out of his coma to utter "Savonarola did". Sangfroid du mort if ever!:rock:
Still no news on what motivated this bloke to do himself in. Whatever his message it's looking like its been lost.
Aktungbby
10-06-13, 06:40 PM
I suppose it would be in bad taste to make a comment about immolation emulation?
(and I wonder why I don't have any friends) :D
COME ON! you'll hurt Vendor's feelings! Count me beside you in the shield wall at least...:Kaleun_Salute:
Herr-Berbunch
10-06-13, 06:51 PM
Can someone let me know when enough time has passed and I can make a joke* about this please. TIA
*Don't worry, it's not a very good one.
Tango589
10-06-13, 07:27 PM
That's long enough for me. Hit us with it and decency be damned.
(If not, PM me with it!:salute:)
AVGWarhawk
10-06-13, 07:42 PM
This man killed himself to make a statement, but does anyone know what it was?
Seems two were making a statement this week and both at the heart of the American Government. :hmmm:
Seems two were making a statement this week and both at the heart of the American Government. :hmmm:
Well, that's more than the American Government has managed for the past four days...
AVGWarhawk
10-06-13, 08:20 PM
Well, that's more than the American Government has managed for the past four days...
Past six years sir.
Past six years sir.
Touché
Wolferz
10-07-13, 08:13 AM
The suicide note burned with him.:88)
I'll be over here on the couch.:cool:
Skybird
10-07-13, 08:37 AM
Self immolation (and hunger strikes) has never impressed me. Its like biting off your tongue in an attempt to win a verbal debate.
Desperate or not, angry or not - it's a choice people make, and often they try it in an attempt to blackmail institutions, organisations or governments.
My reaction to such things is total passivity, and refusal to react in any way at all. I just don't feel that I want to. Blackmailing is something I react very negatively to in general. To be honest, it raises my hostility.
In Germany, a Syrian migrant has tried to blackmail the government to bring his family to Germany, by climbing on a crane and threatening to jump to death. Clever. He was surprised and overwhelmed by police in darkness and bad weather. Some days ago I read that after he was released from police custody, he then has climbed again on a crane and again threatened to jump to death to force Germany to bring his family to Germany.
Months ago, a huge group of migrants wanted to blackmail Germany to shortcut their asylum procedures and grant them asylum for sure by starting a hunger strike in public. I would have thrown them out immediately.
Such blackmailing cannot be accepted or made a deal over. Staatsräson. Threatening to use violence against oneself is no argument, nor a moral obligation the other has to obey to. So let them jump, burn, starve, whatever. I refuse to give it attention or the wanted reaction.
Herr-Berbunch
10-07-13, 09:56 AM
That's long enough for me. Hit us with it and decency be damned.
OK, but I'm willing to pull it if ANYONE wants me to.
Does make me wonder what this chaps motivation was.
The price of gas.
See, told you it wasn't a very good one.
Tribesman
10-07-13, 11:15 AM
Self immolation (and hunger strikes) has never impressed me. Its like biting off your tongue in an attempt to win a verbal debate.
And there was me thinking it was a method of giving voice to those who are not heard.
So glad that Skybird put me right on that one.
Someone had better tell women that they had better not go on hungerstrike to try and a get vote as that is blackmail.:yep:
AVGWarhawk
10-07-13, 11:19 AM
And there was me thinking it was a method of giving voice to those who are not heard.
So glad that Skybird put me right on that one.
Someone had better tell women that they had better not go on hungerstrike to try and a get vote as that is blackmail.:yep:
What would Ghandi think? :hmmm:
Skybird
10-07-13, 12:14 PM
What would Ghandi think? :hmmm:
I don't care what Gandhi thinks. He does not rank high on my list of adorable celebs.
And mind you: if Nehru wouldn't have stopped his suicidal romanticism about agricultural policy and the rewards of simple village life (yeah, wonderful it is) as he fantasized it to be, 4.5 million and maybe even more Indians would have been killed in famines due to Gandhi's disconnected fantasies, and his name would be mentioned in one breath with the name of Stalin, whose agricultural experiments and mismanagement alone killed between 3.5 and 14.5 million Russians, depending on the historian you ask about Stalin's farming genius.
Save me from Gandhi and the likes. He was lucky a guy that he dealt with the civilized Brits. If needing to confront Saddam or Hitler or Tamerlan or Rome for most of its reign, he would not have survived even the first day of his protest, and we would not even know his name nowadays. His luck lies in that the British already had a bad conscience, one way or the other, and already had a feeling of that they were somewhat out of place in India.
Or do you recall the face of the last Tibetan monk burning himself in "protest" against the Chinese?
Too much romanticism and transfiguration in these things. Gandhi. Theresa. Che. Save me.
Armistead
10-07-13, 12:19 PM
Can someone let me know when enough time has passed and I can make a joke* about this please. TIA
*Don't worry, it's not a very good one.
The time has passed, joke away.....{no dog jokes}
Jimbuna
10-07-13, 12:24 PM
Four or five posts too late :hmmm:
AVGWarhawk
10-07-13, 12:26 PM
Too much romanticism and transfiguration in these things. Gandhi. Theresa. Che. Save me.
Theresa as in Mother Teresa?
Tribesman
10-07-13, 03:54 PM
And mind you: if Nehru wouldn't have stopped his suicidal romanticism about agricultural policy and the rewards of simple village life (yeah, wonderful it is) as he fantasized it to be, 4.5 million and maybe even more Indians would have been killed in famines due to Gandhi's disconnected fantasies, and his name would be mentioned in one breath with the name of Stalin, whose agricultural experiments and mismanagement alone killed between 3.5 and 14.5 million Russians, depending on the historian you ask about Stalin's farming genius.
Is this the same person who has a strange dream ideology involving little isolated village fiefdoms and the simple life?
Is Skybird really Ghandi on one of Mohandas bad days?
If needing to confront Saddam or Hitler or Tamerlan or Rome for most of its reign, he would not have survived even the first day of his protest, and we would not even know his name nowadays.
Yes because they would be like....My reaction to such things is total passivity, and refusal to react in any way at all. I just don't feel that I want to. Blackmailing is something I react very negatively to in general. To be honest, it raises my hostility. So let them jump, burn, starve, whatever. I refuse to give it attention or the wanted reaction. :hmmm:
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