Reasons behind mass suicide?
Some experts have said that a mass suicide, like the one committed last month by the Heaven's Gate members in San Diego, California, in the United States, may reflect a general disappointment with life. Anthropologist P.M. Laksono of Yogyakarta-based Gadjah Mada University explores reasons why people commit mass suicide.
Question: How would you explain this action?
Answer: Such acts are what Durkheim's theory describes as altruism, a mass suicide caused by the so-called collective awareness.
This is different from a fatalistic suicide, which is caused by mere egoism. This can occur anywhere, not just in the West. In Japan, for example, it is also altruism which leads the Japanese to commit hara-kiri.
We have very little information about suicide. Yet, there is a possibility that suicide brings pleasure to the people who do it.
A preliminary study about suicide was carried out by Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist. In his book, entitled Suicide, Durkheim made a list of motivating factors for suicide. Durkheim made a comparison of Protestants and Catholics.
Among Protestant societies, in which the collective conscience was less strong than in Catholic societies, Durkheim found a greater number of individual suicide cases.
Collective conscience, therefore, makes for two possibilities. It can prevent people from committing suicide, or on the other hand, it can do the reverse.
Q: Why is this so?
A: The collective conscience creates a certain mechanistic solidarity among groups of people, which leads each person to feel the same way as the others.
This kind of solidarity is different from what is called organic solidarity, which emerges with a widening division of labor.
It is basically organic solidarity which forms a modern society, in which each member does different specialized work.
It's just like the way the organic parts of human bodies do their jobs. Legs do the walking; brains think, and so on. Thus, in a modern industrialized society, it should be the organic solidarity which emerges.
In a modern country like the United States, there is also a possibility of the emergence of a collective conscience, which forms a mechanic solidarity.
Q: What makes it so?
A: It's possibly caused by alienation or frustration. As we can all see, the process of development also creates victims. There are many backward societies. The process of modernization, which requires specialization in the workplace, results in a very selective system. Those who cannot meet the requirements will be automatically ostracized.
Within these groups, who share many difficulties, a mechanical solidarity can easily form. They may realize this solidarity in the form of an altruistic suicide, such as that of the Heaven's Gate members, or they may carry out mass violence. In such cases, people are no longer afraid of death.
Q: Are you saying that such a phenomenon can explain why riots happen, like those which occurred recently in some parts of Indonesia?
A: That's right. Because the emergence of such mass power requires a perception of a shared fate. If we share the same fate and difficulties, then we can join in the same movement.
Q: There seems to be certain destructive powers in mechanical solidarity which can manifest themselves in either external or internal forms. Is that so?
A: Not quite. Mechanical solidarity is not always destructive. It can also be used toward positive ends, like, for example, in a situation of mutual cooperation.
It becomes destructive when the collective awareness takes the form of suffering. If the collective awareness yields more pleasure than suffering, it won't go that way.
The Heaven's Gate members possibly see life as something they don't wish for. It's possible, isn't it? Thus, they see death as a heaven's gate which can be reached through ritual. In that case, they share the same dream of a better world.
According to Victor Turner, an anthropologist, the perception of a shared fate may emerge in the so-called liminal condition. This is a condition in which people feel that they don't belong to either society group.
They have departed from the old community but are yet to enter the new one. Such conditions lead to the possibility of an emergence of a collective conscience among people, which in turn, can lead to the creation of a mechanical solidarity.
Q: How do you explain the relation between collective conscience and the human intellect? How can a group of intellectuals, like some of the Heaven's Gate members, commit such a suicide?
A: There is nothing strange in that. A mass suicide has nothing to do with formal intellectual status. A university in the U.S., in which many members of its academic society commit suicide, is an example.
There is also a possibility that a person's academic experience can provide that person with more or fewer ideas about death as an optimum solution to his problem of life.
That's why there is a greater likelihood of suicides in an intellectual community.
Q: Why is this ?
A: They think a lot. The more they think, the more confusing the possibilities. Relaxed people are those who are often too lazy to think about anything, aren't they?
Q: What roles do religions play?
A: Religions are practiced through interpretation. Thus, it is interpretation which plays a role. Religions without interpretations can do nothing. Religions offer inspiration to those who are willing to believe. If people refuse to believe in religions, they will mean nothing.
The impact that religions have on people can be made better or worse by the person's own logical reasoning. In this case, it was the person's logical reasoning, not the religion itself. That's why suicide can be committed by believers of any religion. Committing suicide is the decision of human beings, not religion.
Q: Are you saying that a person's attitude toward religion has no influence on her or his motive to commit suicide?
A: A person's attitude does have influence. The problem is that a person's fate cannot be measured and it is also very dynamic. One day a person can be very close to God but other days, he or she may completely forget about God.
Q: Is it because of dynamism that a person's fate cannot guarantee that the person won't commit suicide?
A: It's the people themselves who cannot guarantee it. A person's fate, however, depends very much on the person's own decision. It's because of his or her own decision that a person has an inclination (fate) towards a particular religion. Deciding to have an attitude toward a religion, therefore, is part of every human being's internal process.
There were stories, like those written in ancient Indonesian books, which told of wives committing suicide to show respect for her husband's death. Such suicides -- not those caused by fatalistic egoism -- can happen anywhere.
We also recognize the so-called bonek (a regional dialect acronym of bondo nekad meaning uncompromising) community. They have no fear. Unfortunately, under certain conditions they usually have a very strong communal solidarity, so they have the capability to form a mass power.
Q: Aren't they dangerous?
A: They can be dangerous but they can also make history. As you see, it's also because of such a mass power that Indonesia gained its independence in 1945.
Q: Is there any way to control such a power so that we can minimize the negative and maximize the positive?
A: Yes, of course. By minimizing the alienation. We have to humanize ourselves in the sense that we must be able to treat people in a human way. One of the things we have to do is lessen social disparity. (swa)