Suicide is Far More Common than Terrorism

Last updated on: March 30, 2015 at 2:04 pm by Kyle Roberts

Suicide is Far More Common than Terrorism 2015-03-30T14:04:20-05:00 Kyle Roberts

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Imagine if the Germanwings plane was brought down in an act of political or religious terrorism? As much attention as the tragedy is currently getting, the fury and intensity would be far greater than it is.

I suggested in a recent post that perhaps we could think of severe mental illness as a kind of “terrorist,” insofar as mental illness terrorizes its victims–often with a relentless and darkness that leads ultimately to the taking of their own lives.

“Terrorism” is a subjective term. The “rights” to define it (and to determine who is a “terrorist”) seems to lie with whatever political power or nation-state is setting the definition. And the term is used for political and propaganda purposes. How different would the media presentation and social media conversation about this tragedy be had the co-pilot self-identified as a “terrorist”? We would see “terror” and “terrorist” splashed across our screens with a regular ferocity.

And yet, when we look at the data, suicide is far deadlier than terrorism, in terms of deaths each year. Over 800,000 die globally from suicide. In 2013, for example, 17,800 people were killed globally in terrorist attacks–according to the State Department. In the U.S. alone, 38,000 people die each year from suicide. It is the 10th leading cause of death in America; homicide is the 16th. Only a tiny fraction of those homicides would be classified as “terrorist” acts.

Some argued that, in my recent post, I “cheapened” the word terrorism by suggesting that severe mental illness functions as a “terrorist” for the one suffering from the illness. First off, I am not sure why people so badly want to protect the word, as if it carries some kind of intrinsic sacred value. It’s already pretty subjective and malleable anyway. And can we so cleanly extricate the political and religious motivations of violence from neurotic perversion? The supposedly “clean” geo-political and religious/ideological definition of terrorism plays into the hands of our deepest human fears and activates our innate ability to distinguish “us” from “them.” It also activates our self-protectiveness and our hatred of the other. And it makes for good media profits, no doubt.

None of this is to get anyone “off the hook,” not the least Andreas Lubitz, for acts of violence committed against other human beings. I do not mean to say that Lubitz was only a victim of a sick psyche. Most victims of mental illness find less devastating (and yes, less evil ways) to deal with their demons. But we also have to admit that we have no idea what was going on inside his head.

So I am simply suggesting that we try to better understand the various causes that contribute to horrific evils like this. We need to recognize that “terror,”–and even terrorism–has many names and faces and that the consequences of not attending more seriously to them are deadly. It is amazing, for example, that Lufthansa requires no psychological evaluation to determine pilot fitness for work. I suspect that will be changing quickly.

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Germanwings: When Suicidal Depression Turns Into Terrorism

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