Whatever his deeper motivations to suicide, they pale next to the fact of HOW Aaron chose to do it: He could've chosen the privacy of his bedroom. Instead he chose to destroy his life publicly, painfully, as a galling message and moral cry, something we all COULD use to question ourselves on many levels rather than getting entangled in whether he was a martyr or a madman. Both? Neither? Those who claim he did it for a twisted need to be famous, remember others like him have chosen to unleash assault weapons at schools to do that.
Good, brave work, Seth. Thanks. What can a local say about the secretive, titheing, C of J? Years ago after a rehab disaster I ended up in arbitration with their builder business (not initially identified to me as such). They came with three lawyers, all I had was a fever, but a date is a date. The judge found for me down the line, with damages. The hypocrisy of C of J saying Bushnell was not a 'member,' when he had been raised and home-schooled in their closed community, rings a bell. Suicide is a mystery. Self-immolation is a protest. If Bushnell was mentally ill, what contributed to that? How deeply personal might the protest have been?
I can’t help but wonder if Robins would agree that if Israel were to bomb the Iranian embassy that Iran would have the right to protect themselves by bombing apartment buildings, hospitals, and and schools in Israel, killing tens of thousands of Israelis.
This is important journalism. Thank you Seth. I visited that church many years ago to see Romulo Del Deo's door installed. Beautiful piece. Beautiful place. It's nice to learn more about them.
Thanks so much for these substantive, thoughtful comments. Having good writers respond to writing is always most heartening, most appreciated, as are supportive comments from people willing to take the time to send a quick note about a piece of work that was difficult to come to terms with, not easy to realize. I'm sure more people will weigh in, look forward to them as well. Best all around, s
I've been trying to glean from mainstream media coverage what was going on with Aaron Bushnell and the religious community he came from, and you've filled in the gaps. Thank you.
Strange but true, I don't entirely disagree with attorney Jeffrey Robbins when he attributes Bushnell's dramatic suicide to "mental illness" -- but unlike him, and many (most?) mental health professionals, I don't see "mental illness" as always and inevitably an individual thing. I don't see all suicides as a sign of mental illness either. But Aaron Bushnell's suicide was, among other things, a public performance. As a member of the public, I'm part of the intended audience. I've also been following Middle Eastern politics for decades and am currently part of a local Israel/Palestine group, so there's also that.
We're all influenced by the communities we grow up in, but we're influenced in different ways: some embrace the values we learn growing up, others turn against them, and still others pick and choose. Closed shops like the Community of God make the "pick and choose" option difficult: either you're in or you're out. They also seem to promote either/or thinking in other ways. When everything is either black or white, there's no gray, no middle way, no way that differences can be reconciled and problems solved.
If there's no middle way, one's options are, more or less, put up with it on one hand and, on the other, blow the whole thing up -- or perhaps opt out by committing a very public suicide. It's comparable to the insurrectionists who showed up at the Capitol on 1/6/2021: they didn't see a middle way -- a democratic way -- out either.
And it's comparable to Trump's hardcore followers in general, who are frequently and not without reason called a "cult." Cults, after all, are closed shops. Cult members tend to see the world in black and white, with no gray in between, and they won't let any hint of gray into their worldviews either. Democracy, however, can only flourish in the gray areas, where most of us believe (most of the time) that differences can be reconciled and problems solved.
So I don't know whether Aaron Bushnell was "mentally ill" the way the mental-health professionals define it. I do believe that the either/or, black/white, live/die thinking that his suicide suggests is not an individual thing, and that it's a serious threat to our aspiring democracy.
Fine piece, Seth. To which the cult, of course, will react as cults do.
The facts remain:
—well over 30,000 civilians, including 15,000 children, have been slaughtered by the Israeli military in Gaza
—most protests by Christians, Jews, and others against this continuing slaughter specifically DO NOT ENDORSE the initial murderous actions of another cult, ie., Hamas
—Bushnell, a functioning and clearly moral adult, should be accorded the respect of taking his protest at face value: as a way to condemn a US-funded slaughter that has morphed into a form of genocide
Excellent, stark observations.
Whatever his deeper motivations to suicide, they pale next to the fact of HOW Aaron chose to do it: He could've chosen the privacy of his bedroom. Instead he chose to destroy his life publicly, painfully, as a galling message and moral cry, something we all COULD use to question ourselves on many levels rather than getting entangled in whether he was a martyr or a madman. Both? Neither? Those who claim he did it for a twisted need to be famous, remember others like him have chosen to unleash assault weapons at schools to do that.
Good, brave work, Seth. Thanks. What can a local say about the secretive, titheing, C of J? Years ago after a rehab disaster I ended up in arbitration with their builder business (not initially identified to me as such). They came with three lawyers, all I had was a fever, but a date is a date. The judge found for me down the line, with damages. The hypocrisy of C of J saying Bushnell was not a 'member,' when he had been raised and home-schooled in their closed community, rings a bell. Suicide is a mystery. Self-immolation is a protest. If Bushnell was mentally ill, what contributed to that? How deeply personal might the protest have been?
I can’t help but wonder if Robins would agree that if Israel were to bomb the Iranian embassy that Iran would have the right to protect themselves by bombing apartment buildings, hospitals, and and schools in Israel, killing tens of thousands of Israelis.
This is important journalism. Thank you Seth. I visited that church many years ago to see Romulo Del Deo's door installed. Beautiful piece. Beautiful place. It's nice to learn more about them.
Thanks so much for these substantive, thoughtful comments. Having good writers respond to writing is always most heartening, most appreciated, as are supportive comments from people willing to take the time to send a quick note about a piece of work that was difficult to come to terms with, not easy to realize. I'm sure more people will weigh in, look forward to them as well. Best all around, s
I've been trying to glean from mainstream media coverage what was going on with Aaron Bushnell and the religious community he came from, and you've filled in the gaps. Thank you.
Strange but true, I don't entirely disagree with attorney Jeffrey Robbins when he attributes Bushnell's dramatic suicide to "mental illness" -- but unlike him, and many (most?) mental health professionals, I don't see "mental illness" as always and inevitably an individual thing. I don't see all suicides as a sign of mental illness either. But Aaron Bushnell's suicide was, among other things, a public performance. As a member of the public, I'm part of the intended audience. I've also been following Middle Eastern politics for decades and am currently part of a local Israel/Palestine group, so there's also that.
We're all influenced by the communities we grow up in, but we're influenced in different ways: some embrace the values we learn growing up, others turn against them, and still others pick and choose. Closed shops like the Community of God make the "pick and choose" option difficult: either you're in or you're out. They also seem to promote either/or thinking in other ways. When everything is either black or white, there's no gray, no middle way, no way that differences can be reconciled and problems solved.
If there's no middle way, one's options are, more or less, put up with it on one hand and, on the other, blow the whole thing up -- or perhaps opt out by committing a very public suicide. It's comparable to the insurrectionists who showed up at the Capitol on 1/6/2021: they didn't see a middle way -- a democratic way -- out either.
And it's comparable to Trump's hardcore followers in general, who are frequently and not without reason called a "cult." Cults, after all, are closed shops. Cult members tend to see the world in black and white, with no gray in between, and they won't let any hint of gray into their worldviews either. Democracy, however, can only flourish in the gray areas, where most of us believe (most of the time) that differences can be reconciled and problems solved.
So I don't know whether Aaron Bushnell was "mentally ill" the way the mental-health professionals define it. I do believe that the either/or, black/white, live/die thinking that his suicide suggests is not an individual thing, and that it's a serious threat to our aspiring democracy.
Fine piece, Seth. To which the cult, of course, will react as cults do.
The facts remain:
—well over 30,000 civilians, including 15,000 children, have been slaughtered by the Israeli military in Gaza
—most protests by Christians, Jews, and others against this continuing slaughter specifically DO NOT ENDORSE the initial murderous actions of another cult, ie., Hamas
—Bushnell, a functioning and clearly moral adult, should be accorded the respect of taking his protest at face value: as a way to condemn a US-funded slaughter that has morphed into a form of genocide
Important and germane, thank you, Seth.
Thank you for writing this.