SUICIDE is the reflection of social Darwinism in society. Our excessive emphasis on economic surplus creates a vacuum among family members. Biological natural selection, deployed to construe social dynamics, gives rise to unhealthy competition in society. Outstanding performance is considered the only reason for our existence. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to repeated employment loyalty is appreciated, and we are expected to comply without any murmur.听
When attention and care are forgotten from our arena of familiarity, we become hollow individuals. Bread and butter races make us the sailors of the reluctant voyage. The distance from nature is lethal for our mental and physical health. Our daily routine is often consumed by economic struggles and tribulations. Those who enjoy the cream do not care about the soldiers of cheap labour.
Depression is a human reaction to time-bound performance. It is a protest against the normalised order of things. Those who question the system are often considered to be sick. Everyone is expected to be part of the economic rollercoaster. Those who fall behind or want to take a break from the competition are ridiculed and reminded of others鈥� progress. We have to get our names registered for the show of skills and economic acrobatics. The hectic and tight schedule is hard to escape and modify. We are moulded by the template of systematic transformation of humans into automatons.
Time becomes our master. Every second and every minute is crucial for evaluating performance. Even the Bengali sense of time is disciplined to comply with the time machine. Time machine is not to surmount the limits of time but to imprison humans within it. Employment is determined by time-bound incarceration in the place of work and monetary reward. Time of individualism determines the backbone of society. From family members to neighbours, everyone releases hostile arrows at our modest goals. Someone鈥檚 prolonged sickness and financial travail have no place in the assembly line of performance. Time is trained in an authoritarian manner so that instead of healing our wounds, it becomes our tears. Psychiatrists are there to victimise us by giving us tags instead of neutralising the ticking bomb.
The tragic story of a Bangladeshi family that became the victim of the social system helps us understand the importance of quality time with family members. The pressure to perform well in the face of emotional deprivation is the social norm, particularly in urban areas. The diversity visa was once like a goose laying golden eggs, but it eventually became a nightmare for the whole family. The dream country could not remove the sorrows and pain that were created by the absence of the father from Bangladesh due to his separation from the whole family. Depression is the outcome of a harsh social system where enviable performance remains the only accomplishment. Lack of empathy coupled with social Darwinism creates a vacuum in many people鈥檚 lives to usher in the reign of emotional terror. The individuals suffering from depression killed their family members because they would feel the pain of the victims of suicide.听
One of my students committed suicide due to pressure from her family. She was a lively person involved in sports. In the classroom, she was sometimes absent-minded. She sat for an exam quite enthusiastically. No one thought that she would commit suicide while going live on Facebook. She was in the army, and everything was going well, but one day during the training, she got injured and her shoulder was badly fractured, making her unsuitable for the future role as an officer. Her father was disheartened and used to blame her for the injury. Her dreams of becoming an army officer were shattered, and instead of compassion, she was given a cold shoulder. She was struggling to cope with academic stress in the new environment with her broken dreams. For a lack of support from her family, she took her own life.听听听听
Recently, one student from Mymensingh Engineering College committed suicide because of the excessive academic pressure. In his suicide note, he wrote that the education system is to blame for his suicide. He wanted to pursue his major in pharmacy, and he said that he would fulfil his dream in the next life. He was caught cheating in the exam hall and was expelled by the invigilator. He then begged for another chance, but they did not relent. He then went to his dormitory and hanged himself from the ceiling. In Bangladesh, parents have this unrealistic dream that their children will either be a physician or an engineer. This fascination with these two professions is harmful to the students and the education system. They should allow their children to choose their major. They should never impose their decisions on young souls. Another engineering student in Karnataka committed suicide due to academic pressure.
The dent in development is intimately connected with social Darwinism. It is the outcome of superficial development, leaving dents in our lives. When we achieve infrastructural development at the cost of humane interactions and nature is relegated out of sight, we suffer from a dent in development. Shashata Sawmya鈥檚 dead body was found in Okanagan Lake in Canada. Despite being a bright student at MIT, his dream of becoming an accomplished engineer with an international degree was not allowed to flourish by the harsh social system. His Facebook status of the great American dream being dead was a signal for the lethal blow. Instead of creating a comfortable space for every individual in the world willing to be part of the tornado of development, the dent hijacks our mental peace and robs our humane qualities to imprison us inside golden cages.听听听
Miscarriage of development reveals the dark side of development, where loneliness, exploitation, oppression, abandonment and precarity become dominant in our lives. Metropolitan lives engender the dilemma of engagement and estrangement. We can neither deal with loneliness nor can we entertain the intrusive warmth of collective companionship. We seem to be happy with minimal camaraderie with selected individuals. Our rooms become our cosmos. Once we enter our private enclaves, we do not keep any ties with the outside world. Our devices become our pals, and we explore digital biographies. Interaction can become a burden for many of us, and some of us seek solace in the companionship of pets and life-size dolls, a reality in Japan. Urban steamrollers banish the forest cover and create the necessary evil of the concrete jungle. Parks try to compensate us for the loss, but fail to provide any meaningful solution. In this situation, suicide remains a big question mark for uneven development founded on unhealthy competition.听
Suicide is considered the only option for solving problems by those who commit it. It creates a huge social burden for the family members left behind. Psychological instability may be overcome if we can unearth the chain of problems in people鈥檚 lives. Instead of downplaying the severity of problems and overlooking important issues, we should spend quality time with our near and dear ones. Our existence in this world is not only about remaining busy with ourselves; we have to make time for people in distress to avoid its repetition.听听听
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Mohammad Mahfuzul Islam is an anthropologist and a faculty member at Independent University Bangladesh.
