(no subject)

There was a metafilter thread on the whole GWB medals thing. One of the comments said:

Wasn't there recently (last few years) a general who actually committed suicide after being caught wearing ribbons he hadn't earned? Some people take this stuff quite seriously.

It was Admiral Jeremy Boorda, who (I think) was the Navy Chief of Staff. I suspect, however, that Admiral Boorda had some other problems that led him to suicide besides the medal flap......
posted by Durwood at 2:14 PM PST on September 1

I don't really care about GWB's medals, but I got to wondering this morning about the gist of the italicised statement, namely that someone commiting suicide over an issue lends strength to arguments about that issue. Sort of an "Appeal to Suicide." Seems pretty silly to me, I mean I doubt I would be more likely to take Jim Jones, Aum Shinrikiyo, or Heaven's Gate more seriously because they all chose to die. I bet people kill themselves over things that look pretty trivial to the rest of us. School exam scores, failed finances, lost loves, the loss of D & D characters. And I'm pretty sure that upon closer examination, the fact that someone decided to die for the issue doesn't really lend any gravity to it.

Perhaps we take the whole thing too seriously.