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hello everyone,
me and my mates wanna do a radio show on the 18th of may. so we would like to remember ian curtis. for this reason i have one question for you:
why did tony wilson say, that this death was an altruistic suicide?
can someone please answer this?
presumably he meant he did it for someone elses benefit, maybe hinting that the rest of the band would be better off without him coz of his illness
which sounds like a right load of bollocks to me.
you have to take what Tony H says with a pinch of salt sometimes.
He was talking out of his arse!
People commit suicide because they are depressed, not because they feel it's an act of altruism... ok they can feel worthless and mistakedly think they are making things easier for the people they are leaving behind, but it's not an act of generosity that expects no reward, it's an act of desperation!
Nob.
I think the term comes from the philosopher/sociologist
Emile Durkheim
He said something about suicide being for different reasons. One of 'em being altruism.
robert mellor wrote: I think the term comes from the philosopher/sociologist
Emile Durkheim
He said something about suicide being for different reasons. One of 'em being altruism.
Yeah, that's right.
And sometimes there's a thin line between suicide and martyrdom. Remember the japanese kamikaze-pilots or the suicide-attacks by muslim people. And what is about Jesus Christ, if the story is true?
But surely: Ian Curtis was just depressed.
Wilson explained another theory in one of the Factory Story books. He mentioned it again in 24 Hour Party People, but didn't go into detail. It was all to do with his personal circumstances - marriage, baby, girlfriend and he couldn't see a way out of it all.
This seems to me to be a much more reasonable theory than some rubbish about a young man killing himself for the good of a pop band or a bloody record label.
For everyone who knows someone who does someone like that, there's going to be a different explaination. It's worth bearing in mind the Samaritan's argument: if you can stop someone actually commiting suicide at the point they are about to do it, you will probably stop them all together (apologies if I've got that wrong - from memory only). Suicide is usually a spur of the moment decision rather than something that's planned over time.
This pretty much fucks Wilson's Altruism comment, which I would take with a pinch of salt anyway.
Thx for your answers. the radioshow is recorded now. It will be broadcast on 18th of may at 21:04 h (Central European Summertime). Of course it's in german and we don't use any english subtitles. But we have the international language music in it. So here for interested people the link:
That's the homepage, then go on webradio.
