Abbas touches on topics that concern me in this film, so I couldn't help but say more.
Buddy decides to kill himself. He drove down the road in his car, looking for helpers who could help him with his suicide ritual. He revealed his intentions to three people in total: a recruit, a seminary student, and an old man. In my opinion, these three people each represent three ways of resisting suicide, instinctual fear, divine will and the taste of cherries.
One, instinctive fear
Why is death so scary? Although the reason is not elaborated in the film, the reason is easy to understand. There are many ways of speaking. Death is unknown, and the living will not know what the world will be like after death. Most people are risk averse. Or, the process of dying and pain are often closely linked. Even if it can be physically eliminated, the mental pain will be there. People always tend to avoid pain. or, survival of the fittest. Fear of death is something inscribed in the genes. The genes of those who do not have this fear are long dead. etc~
The will of the gods
Of course, since the advent of free will, things like instinct have become less reliable. What is the instinct compared to the will? So the gods were born. If instinct is something at the genetic level, then the gods are meme-like existences. Humans are restrained by the will of the gods. Because God said you must not commit suicide, you must not commit suicide. Logic is flawless. But yeah, even though the seminary students preached to Buddy out of his education, Buddy still had his own questions. If suicide is a sin, unhappiness is also a sin. Because if people are unhappy, they will hurt other people. So, unhappy people, whether they commit suicide or not, have sinned, so what's the difference? Moreover, the reason why people choose to commit suicide must be because they cannot bear the pain of living in the world. Then, with God’s mercy, how can you bear to let people accept unnecessary pain? How can humans be punished for their weakness?
The taste of cherries
The old man's answer was the only one that convinced me. The old man told a story: Many years ago, when he was about the same age as Buddy, he decided to commit suicide because of family problems. He took a rope and drove the car into a cherry grove. He threw the rope on the trunk several times from the bottom of the tree, but it was difficult to tie it. So he climbed up the tree and fastened the rope. This is the season for cherries to ripen. He picked a cherry and tasted the sweet and sour taste. Then came the second, the third... After a while, he heard a few children coming out of school chattering to the tree and let the old man shake the branch. The old man shook it vigorously, and the cherries crashed to the ground. The children picked up the cherries and ate them happily. The old man got down from the tree, picked up a large handful of cherries, and returned home to let his wife taste the taste of cherries.
4. Do you need to stop suicidal behavior?
What if a good friend/stranger of yours decides to commit suicide? While film footage has been tracking Buddy's preparations for suicide, nothing is said about Buddy's motives. What is there to mention? Even if the audience can understand what happened to Buddy and understand Buddy's pain, how can it be possible to empathize? How can one person know what kind of torment and how intense the pain is in another person's heart? So, when people around you are about to commit suicide, do you really want to dissuade them at all costs? How do you know if he died to be happier? How can you know if you would have made the same choice if you had suffered the same? I saw this sentence on Zhihu: Even if you give up your life, you must care about other people's eyes. Do people with depression make the decision to commit suicide just to not make the people around them sad? So at this time, as the person around you, is it better to choose to let yourself suffer the pain of losing him than to let him suffer?
5. Why discuss suicide?
Suicide, Camus said, is the most important philosophical question. I agree with this view. What is the meaning of life? The answer to this question is the best answer to suicide. Moreover, the meaning of life is the most concerned issue of human beings. After all, aside from Bruno, few people die for ontological problems. However, this question cannot be answered rationally. Even if there is an answer, it does not satisfy me. What can withstand rational questioning? Maybe not even rationality itself. So, Alyosha said, love life itself more than love its meaning. This is also very insightful. Profound words are often straightforward.
This is Buddy staring at the last sunset of his life.
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