You come from the same culture but somehow you know better than me? 😕
This seems like an awfully fallacious way of addressing anything that I might say. If it's true, then there's no point having any discussion at all because I couldn't possibly know anything you don't know.
I mean, unless you're the foremost expert on something in the world then there's always someone, somewhere who knows better than you. I thought part of the purpose of discussion was to share information, particularly in cases where someone may not be fully informed or simply may not have thought about a subject from a particular angle before. If someone knows more about something than you then that's not some sort of slight towards you, nobody is fully informed and educated about every single topic ever. It's impossible.
Few people think about how deeply rooted their culture is in Christianity because it simply doesn't occur to them, we are living in an age where the influence of religion and the church is becoming visibly weaker and so that's the common perception. Unless you're really into history in ways that most people aren't, the links between religion and the structure of governments and culture isn't easily apparent, let alone the ongoing systemic biases that this creates.
I can take care both of these in the same response. This is another poorly aimed comment. The bad aim isn't at me, it's at the poor metaphor being expressed. Sebbuku isn't anything like we are talking about. First of, not everyone was allowed to perform Sebbuku. It was for the Samurai. Secondly it was a ritualized exercise that usually ended with them being beheaded after disembowiling themselves. It was an execution in all but name.
Please have the respect to spell it correctly, we're talking about people dying. To address your points:
Firstly, you're wrong, anyone could and can perform seppuku. That it was samurai only is at best a partial truth, one that is corrected in the second sentence of the Wikipedia article. "
It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa period (particularly officers near the end of World War II) to restore honor for themselves or for their families." For reference, the Showa period ended in 1989.
Are you familiar with the famous Japanese author
Yukio Mishima? He died by committing seppuku in 1970 after invading a military base, capturing the commandant and attempting to inspire a coup d'etat. He was a civilian in modern times, not a samurai.
Secondly, it was heavily ritualised, but it was not necessarily an execution. It was often used as such, particularly with respect to samurai. Their options were seppuku or something much worse, and so therefore not an option at all. However, this was not the only use, again as is detailed in the Wikipedia article under the section headed "As Capital Punishment", which starts "
While the voluntary seppuku is the best known form, in practice the most common form of seppuku was obligatory seppuku, used as a form of capital punishment for disgraced samurai, especially for those who committed a serious offense such as rape, robbery, corruption, unprovoked murder or treason."
Clearly, while it's use as an execution method was widespread, it was also used for voluntary suicide. A Western culture parallel might be hanging, a method of death widely associated with the death penalty and executions, but also used by voluntary suicides.
It's not a metaphor, it's a direct comparison of the differing
attitudes towards suicide between cultures. But if you can show other reasons why it's a poor comparison then please go ahead, because the ones you've presented are wrong.
At the end of the day, whatever informs my opinion informs it. I'm certainly not laxidasical in thinking things through. If it happens to overlap with whatever religion, so be it. I don't really care. I'm sure I have all sorts of opinions and notions that overlap with all sorts of isms put there. So be it. Doesn't change me opinion.
This sounds like the start of "it's just my opinion so it can't be wrong". I think we've shown above that sometimes you certainly are lackadaisical (Oxford: lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy) in thinking things through, you didn't read the Wiki article that I linked to see how your established beliefs about seppuku were incorrect or even bother to make sure you spelled it correctly.
If you want to educate yourself and have a robust discussion about the actual merits of any given position on suicide as it relates to justice then that would be great. If you just want to hold your position that suicide isn't justice then so be it, but don't try and make out that it's a logical and rational position if you can't even make the basic effort to address points raised against it. You have a belief, and while you may have spent a lot of time thinking about it that doesn't mean that it's logical or rational.
