Recently, an act of protest was carried out by an individual outside the Israeli embassy in Washington, DC. In a profound expression of dissent, the protester, an active-duty Air Force member, set themselves on fire. The victim’s last words, “Free Palestine,” were a stark message against the suffering in Gaza.
I considered making a video detailing my opinion on this, but I don’t think that format is appropriate given the subject matter.
There are two major problems with the public-facing discussion taking place on “town square” style social feeds:
Firstly, the pathologizing and veneration.
Some voices hastily diagnose the act as stemming from mental illness, while others elevate it to a stature of political heroism. Both reactions, however well-intentioned, assume too much.
The suggestion that this was the result of mental illness is a common response, but it’s lacking. For one, the victim in this tragedy streamed the event and gave a stated purpose. I think that assuming the face-value reason provided is either straightforwardly correct or obfuscating this person’s mental state involves making assumptions in either case.
Individuals can be driven by a complex interplay of factors, including political convictions, personal experiences, and, yes, potentially mental health struggles. However, making assumptions about these motives, even if that motive is the stated motive, is pure speculation. This is a dead person. We can not interrogate them, ask them questions, or make connections beyond speculation. While in private, semi-private, or even semi-public conversations, this isn’t the same kind of problem. When we are participating in outwardly public discussion, none of these things are helpful.
Further, elevating the act to a status of political heroism, I think, is a massive red flag. This was not heroism, it is tragedy. We can acknowledge the stated politics behind this act, but glorifying self-immolation as a form of activism is dangerous. It can set a precedent that the most extreme forms of sacrifice are the most valid or effective, potentially encouraging others to resort to similarly drastic measures.
I say this as someone who believes Israel is an apartheid state and US imperialist satellite that is killing Palestinians in an arguably genocidal manner (one being brought to international court). Burning oneself to death isn't the ultimate sacrifice. It's a spectacle that will be used by those with the means to make it about what they want it to be about.
This is what leads me to my second issue:
This is not a form of protest that will have any positive effect on the Israel-Palestine conflict whatsoever. The people with their hands on the levers of war don’t care about a soldier’s life. If they did, they wouldn’t send so many to die over their territorial shuffling. Further, they don’t care about human life. They happily send money and weapons to Israel, which is happily vaporizing Palestinian civilians in significantly higher numbers than the other way around.
In fact, I think this tragedy will likely be used to marginalize pro-Palestine opinions. It’s a grim reality that once the protester is gone, they lose all control over their story, which various outlets and agendas can co-opt (remember, the people don’t own the media) that may not align with their original intent.
Some might say the problem with this is that he didn’t belong to an organization that could posthumously speak on his behalf. I think this fails to understand what it would look like for an organization to act as if his death is anything other than a tragedy. It would look like a death cult, which I have seen countless people say in response to the veneration of this man’s suicide.
Conclusion
I think this statement in an article by Crimethink sums it up:
Many things that are worth doing entail risks, but choosing to intentionally end your life means foreclosing years or decades of possibility, denying the rest of us a future with you. If such a decision is ever appropriate, it is only when every other possible course of action has been exhausted.
We are not in that situation. There are other avenues to express this sentiment that don’t end in a person dying for no reason. It is arguable those things don’t change anything, but neither did this person’s tragic death. Who knows how many civilians have died in war since this morning? I can’t give you a number, but I can confidently say it’s the same number as if there was no immolation.
The value of a protest lies not in its shock value or the level of sacrifice involved, but in its ability to make people conscious of the real issues. This didn’t do that; in today’s partisan social/traditional media, this either looked like a hero or like an extremist doing something extremist.
It is neither of those things. It’s a tragedy.
Your points about the tug-of-war over how the act, and the young man who did it, are to be perceived are highly relevant in this discussion; I know of no one else who has touched on them besides you and me.
No one listens to me, and I'm used to it; but it gratifies me a touch to read you saying similar things.
The authorities and their water-carriers couldn't suppress this desperate, shocking act fast enough; so they're pivoting to minimization and trivialization of it in hindsight. They'll encourage the worst forms of discourse in the Spectacle to fight over it, hagiography vs. smearing invective; until those are the only two choices allowed.
The challenge is, to not engage with either; and to continue to know different.
Since I haven't joined any discussion online yet.... might as well here lol.
I don't think that the common people (workers) will react negatively to this. The common people won't know about it unless it seeps into popular culture. Which would be really weird but not unimaginable in our society. See South Park.
Anybody who follows your work in good faith has a conscience that has a difficult time functioning properly in our deranged society. Even if each of us is fortunate to have a friend group, the chances that our friends feel the same mental torment that we do in light of today's world is minimal. Most people disengage from reality to survive. And I don't mean "reality" like our culture says it, I mean people get immersed in cat videos or gardening or their dog or video games or anything ANYTHING that doesn't involve examining contradictions.
Because those of us who spend a lot of time contemplating the contradictions and fighting to educate people about them, we are often faced with such shit that it almost becomes laughable. In fact you have to laugh or you'd cry!
So I can't explain why, but I feel very proud of this guy, in a way that our society would not approve of. I guess it's that I understand the feeling of knowing things are so goddamn messed up, that you'd sacrifice your life in a desperate attempt to say something and be heard. Because you cannot bear the contradictions anymore, they're so extreme yet society just keeps whirring along and the vast majority of people aren't paying attention.
Dave DeCamp made an offhand comment on his news roundup, and maybe he doesn't stand by it but I want to mention it anyways. He said something like, "why would you light yourself on fire? There's so many better ways to protest."
And I just thought, what are they?? What are these better ways of protesting and taking a stand? Cause we're on the fifth month of a genocide, our government is doing it and openly cheering it, the majority of Americans don't care about it (not because they're bad people but because they don't feel like there's a damn thing they can do about it.) We've got a government that is so corrupt it needs a new word to describe it because it makes corrupt look bad. They openly tell us they're managing the economy so that a bunch of us lose our jobs. The ones that are supposed to lie to us about how much they care about workers don't even lie about that anymore..
It's like, I get this guy. Not to be Debbie Downer, but I think every single one of us in this space gets this guy, and have felt something similar to what he must have felt. If that opinion is not allowed in polite stupid society, I don't gaf.
Note: cat videos are beneficial in moderation.