This was a good read and quite heavy. I'm not sure what the takeaway is though.
What can we learn from such a tragedy that might help others? A trend in such stories seems to be a period of increasing isolation from everyone but in many cases none of the cut out people do anything about it. I find it hard to understand how the family of the wife can just accept losing contact like that, but I've not been in this situation so what do I know?
Either way, grim stuff. At least the deaths were quick and they didn't seem to really suffer that much.
Pointless stories that supposedly "educate and inform" the public, about something way above their pay grade seem to be the norm these days.
As a manager most of my time these days seems to get spent in reminding people they don't have to come up with constructive narratives for every complex problem the internet or life dumps on them.
If you are really interested in an issue put in the work. Find an expert. If the experts don't have great answers and you are still interested put in the work. This discipline seems to have evaporated these days.
Every one is programmed for instant gratification that comes from just reacting and being satisfied with the like button counter of the reaction.
Hard problems are hard. Its okay to say you have no idea how to solve it. But don't use it as an excuse to not get an expert involved.
Why does any story need to have an agenda? I didn't get one from this, and I would be hard pressed to find an agenda from most of the fiction I read either.
This is the story of a whole family's life and how they died. You think it's pointless to read or publish it? Why?
'Pay grade' statements weaken your statements fatally so we'll ignore them.
I'm not looking for gratification or some shortcut to a solution for a problem I'm not trying to solve but I can't understand what you're trying to say here..
Are you saying I'm wrong for thinking about what to learn from this terrible tale? Should the only people commenting on things outside their field only be allowed if they're willing to have a field of independent experts backing them up? Eh?
Yes because times have changed. People spend more time reacting to things they can't solve than on developing the discipline it takes to address them. Social media and news media are totally architected to encourage this kind of thinking and behaviour. And its costing us big.
Most people in the world aren't well prepped to deal with this overloading of complexity. Its like constantly bombarding a bunch of second graders with tenth grade problems. There are huge consequences to that playing out right now in society.
This concept that people with access to info will develop healthy ways to parse the info by themselves is total BS. Its like saying access to a library is a kid needs to get educated. If that were true why do we need teachers and schools.
With speed and scale of info delivery comes a responsibility unlike ever before to think about the unintended consequences. Its just not happening. People are falling over themselves reporting complex things whose solutions they barely understand.
If you're going to lecture from on high and pass judgment on the poor plebs who can barely understand complex ideas, _please_ learn that "its" is possessive. You want "it's".
I may be accused of pedantry but you committed this error repeatedly. It grates.
Unfortunately, the forces which affect everyone in our society today tend to be too deep and too complex for everyone to actually understand them.
For any given problem, the people who understand the problem are often unwilling to fix it because doing so might not align with their financial interests.
The few expert dissidents that exist in any given area need the support of the uninformed masses in order to change things.
I find it hard to buy this argument today. Obama and Trump have proved getting support by pandering doesn't take us anywhere closer to solutions.
But the current architecture of our socialnetworks and media keep promoting this notion. All I see happening is more pandering until the underlying architecture that reinforces this behaviour changes.
>What can we learn from such a tragedy that might help others?
Mental healthcare for veterans is clearly grossly inadequate. Lobby your representatives for better support and keep lobbying until something changes.
If you're concerned about the mental wellbeing of someone you know, act early. Don't let your doubts stop you from acting, don't fall victim to wishful thinking. Talk to them and listen to what they have to say. Keep in touch, even if they're becoming more distant. Encourage them to seek treatment. If you're concerned for their safety, call an ambulance. Find out what your state laws are on involuntary commitment, just in case.
I'd highly recommend taking a course in mental health first aid. These courses are widely available and usually free. In just a few hours, you can gain the skills and confidence to help someone in a crisis.
As a vet I can tell you all healthcare for vets is a joke. And mental health? LOL!
The public, press and government can pay as much lip service as they want toward "caring" for their veterans. But that's all it is. Some momentary hand waving and noise whilst there's a new story making the circuit about the most recent veteran failure. Five minutes go by and it's a forgotten issue again.
We've treated service members as consumables publicly since the Vietnam war. For those who come back broken, not much has changed since 1955.
I know a lot of messed up vets. I've watched them struggle with their issues while fighting a broken, uncaring system. I've been aware of many enlisted suicides over the years. I know when I was self destructing I was lucky to be in a really good financial position and have a caring and resilient significant other. Without those two things clearing paths for me (which has still been a disappointing, frustrating slog) I'm pretty confident I wouldn't be here right now. If I had to rely on the VA or any other "programs" I probably would have ended up scrambling my own brains about 4-6 years ago.
I feel the saddest part was the response of others to his death. Instead of understanding the root causes or trying to help others in his situation people turn to more conspiracies and finger pointing. "The government was behind this. CIA assassination" etc. It completely dehumanizes the issue of mental illness and distracts from the real issues at hand.
12 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 41.6 ms ] threadWhat can we learn from such a tragedy that might help others? A trend in such stories seems to be a period of increasing isolation from everyone but in many cases none of the cut out people do anything about it. I find it hard to understand how the family of the wife can just accept losing contact like that, but I've not been in this situation so what do I know?
Either way, grim stuff. At least the deaths were quick and they didn't seem to really suffer that much.
As a manager most of my time these days seems to get spent in reminding people they don't have to come up with constructive narratives for every complex problem the internet or life dumps on them.
If you are really interested in an issue put in the work. Find an expert. If the experts don't have great answers and you are still interested put in the work. This discipline seems to have evaporated these days.
Every one is programmed for instant gratification that comes from just reacting and being satisfied with the like button counter of the reaction.
Hard problems are hard. Its okay to say you have no idea how to solve it. But don't use it as an excuse to not get an expert involved.
Why does any story need to have an agenda? I didn't get one from this, and I would be hard pressed to find an agenda from most of the fiction I read either.
This is the story of a whole family's life and how they died. You think it's pointless to read or publish it? Why?
'Pay grade' statements weaken your statements fatally so we'll ignore them.
I'm not looking for gratification or some shortcut to a solution for a problem I'm not trying to solve but I can't understand what you're trying to say here..
Are you saying I'm wrong for thinking about what to learn from this terrible tale? Should the only people commenting on things outside their field only be allowed if they're willing to have a field of independent experts backing them up? Eh?
Most people in the world aren't well prepped to deal with this overloading of complexity. Its like constantly bombarding a bunch of second graders with tenth grade problems. There are huge consequences to that playing out right now in society.
This concept that people with access to info will develop healthy ways to parse the info by themselves is total BS. Its like saying access to a library is a kid needs to get educated. If that were true why do we need teachers and schools.
With speed and scale of info delivery comes a responsibility unlike ever before to think about the unintended consequences. Its just not happening. People are falling over themselves reporting complex things whose solutions they barely understand.
I may be accused of pedantry but you committed this error repeatedly. It grates.
For any given problem, the people who understand the problem are often unwilling to fix it because doing so might not align with their financial interests.
The few expert dissidents that exist in any given area need the support of the uninformed masses in order to change things.
Mental healthcare for veterans is clearly grossly inadequate. Lobby your representatives for better support and keep lobbying until something changes.
If you're concerned about the mental wellbeing of someone you know, act early. Don't let your doubts stop you from acting, don't fall victim to wishful thinking. Talk to them and listen to what they have to say. Keep in touch, even if they're becoming more distant. Encourage them to seek treatment. If you're concerned for their safety, call an ambulance. Find out what your state laws are on involuntary commitment, just in case.
I'd highly recommend taking a course in mental health first aid. These courses are widely available and usually free. In just a few hours, you can gain the skills and confidence to help someone in a crisis.
https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/
The public, press and government can pay as much lip service as they want toward "caring" for their veterans. But that's all it is. Some momentary hand waving and noise whilst there's a new story making the circuit about the most recent veteran failure. Five minutes go by and it's a forgotten issue again.
We've treated service members as consumables publicly since the Vietnam war. For those who come back broken, not much has changed since 1955.
I know a lot of messed up vets. I've watched them struggle with their issues while fighting a broken, uncaring system. I've been aware of many enlisted suicides over the years. I know when I was self destructing I was lucky to be in a really good financial position and have a caring and resilient significant other. Without those two things clearing paths for me (which has still been a disappointing, frustrating slog) I'm pretty confident I wouldn't be here right now. If I had to rely on the VA or any other "programs" I probably would have ended up scrambling my own brains about 4-6 years ago.