Suicide is Painless - The Postmodernist Answer

I haven't really understood what the theme from M*A*S*H meant. You know, one of those things people say, you don't know what it really means, but you nod knowingly since everyone else seems to know and it sounds so intellectual.
And you hope someday you will overhear someone explaining it to someone else and you can feel superior to them while learning something at the same time - true multitasking.

Recently I have been around some people who have been depressed and said things like "I just wish I could die and not be here" or something similar. And while I haven't had those kinds of thoughts, I've been depressed enough to know what they mean. Many people carry that thought through to it's conclusion. So what is so "painless" about suicide?

I think it is more about the release from pain. Most of our depressing thoughts bring pain. They are the normal result of the negative things that happen around everybody. They dwell longer and sometimes permanently around some of us, either because we choose to continue along those lines of thought or because of other, perhaps chemical reasons that interrupt normal thinking patterns. We don't recognize positive things around us. Pain, then the normalization of pain - acceptance of it as the status quo - grows. Suicidal thoughts bring the hope of release, much like people often see Christians as dreaming of heaven because it will bring reward, and suicide stops the pain. Maybe that is what is meant by painless.

Nihlism and its successor postmodernism have not given us a reason to live. Nihlism leads one to believe there is no point in being good or bad, doing or not doing. Nothing results from activity. Nothing is worth anything. If that is true, probably not existing is not a bad alternative to existing for no reason.

Postmodernism tries to convince us that we should do good anyway. Just because. If we are going to be here anyway, at least make it feel good to you. That must be worth something. But that still doesn't leave me with a "meaning of life," to use a Monty Python term.

Escaping just should not be the purpose of existence or nonexistence. Religions, Christian and many others, bring us to a purpose or obligation beyond ourselves. I'm here for someone else's purpose. To go with Christianity which I'm most familiar with, we were created (somehow) for His good pleasure, to show others there is purpose, and in the end to be one with Him (heaven or whatever that means.) This creates obligation. Not a negative to me because Christianity gives us the choice of fulfilling the obligation or not. My reading is that you make the choice, you fulfill or not, you are rewarded at some point or not.

The nice thing here is that by fulfilling the obligation - living in harmony with the principles and commands of Jesus, you also gain elements of peace by avoiding things that bring disharmony now. Not everything, but many things. Faithfulness in marriage (on both parts and with other things in play) brings contentment. Care for the body seems keeps you clear of many avoidable dysfunctions. Sharing, respecting others, paying attention to others and helping meet their needs brings purpose, reduces despair, and somehow seems to elevate the mood and bring happiness.

I don't get how that works. It is counterintuitive. If we just happen to be here and have thrived through survival of the fittest, why is there any reason to have happiness when you do something for someone else and there is no gain for you? I have to think there is something "built in" by the Designer to reward us for selflessness and altruistic behavior.

So I guess I don't have much of an answer for someone who is contemplating suicide that doesn't include either something selfish ("please don't, I'd be so sad!") or something dealing with their responsibility to their Creator. Maybe the release of suicide doesn't seem so bad.