Anthony Bourdain, Dead At 61: "Commited" Suicide or "Death By" Suicide?
I’m not a fan of Anthony Bourdain.
Not because I don’t like him; simply because I’ve never actually seen any of his work.
Anthony Bourdain was a food and travel critic with a popular show called Parts Unknown on CNN.
You can just ask my wife: I watch a lot of food-related stuff on YouTube. The voice of Gordon Ramsay has been heard from my kitchen on many occasions. But Bourdain’s show I simply never got around to watching.
Well, it was reported this morning that Bourdain killed himself at the age of 61. His friend Eric Ripert found his body in his hotel room while they were in France working on an episode of his show “Parts Unknown”.
Anthony Bourdain, a gifted storyteller and writer who took CNN viewers around the world, has died. He was 61.
CNN confirmed Bourdain's death on Friday and said the cause of death was suicide.
"It is with extraordinary sadness we can confirm the death of our friend and colleague, Anthony Bourdain," the network said in a statement Friday morning. "His love of great adventure, new friends, fine food and drink and the remarkable stories of the world made him a unique storyteller. His talents never ceased to amaze us and we will miss him very much. Our thoughts and prayers are with his daughter and family at this incredibly difficult time."
CNN's Anthony Bourdain dead at 61
Is suicide a crime?
I heard about this incident by [this tweet[(https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1005047217839902720) by CNN.
I wanted to share some of the comments on this tweet because it brings up a question that, honestly, I didn’t even know was a concern to most people.
One thing to keep in mind is that these accounts are ALL verified (blue checkmarked) media employees in one form or another, and many of them work CNN, also. So it appears that this “death by suicide” vs “committed suicide” narrative is at least in some way manufactured, because these sorts of narrative pushes don’t just pop up so strongly so suddenly unless there’s something behind it.
My thoughts
Suicide is probably one of the saddest things I can imagine.
I’ve had my own struggles with depression, and the act has come up as an option on occasion throughout my life.
The problem that these folks have is that the word “committed” has a criminal connotation; “committed suicide” conflates to “committed murder”. And I can understand how people could see that as insensitive and inappropriate.
But is suicide, technically, considered a crime?
I looked it up, and according to http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Suicide:
Under modern U.S. law, suicide is no longer a crime. Some states, however, classify attempted suicide as a criminal act, but prosecutions are rare, especially when the offender is terminally ill.
And this really is something that varies greatly state-by-state.
According to Wackwitz v. Roy:
We are aware of only one legislative enactment that addresses suicide as a crime. Code § 55-4 provides that "[n]o suicide ... shall work a corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate." Thus, although the General Assembly has rescinded the punishment for suicide, it has not decriminalized the act. Suicide, therefore, remains a common law crime in Virginia as it does in a number of other common-law states. See, e.g., Southern Life & Health Ins. Co. v. Wynn, 29 Ala.App. 207, 194 So. 421 (1940); Commonwealth v. Mink, 123 Mass. 422 (1877); State v. Willis, 255 N.C. 473, 121 S.E.2d 854 (1961); State v. Carney, 69 N.J.L. 478, 55 A. 44 (1903); State v. Levelle, 34 S.C. 120, 13 S.E. 319 (1891), overruled on other grounds by State v. Torrence, 406 S.E.2d 315 (S.C.1991).
To constitute suicide at common law, however, a person who takes his own life "must be of years of discretion, and in his *865 senses." 5 William Blackstone, Commentaries *189; accord Plunkett v. Supreme Conclave, 105 Va. 643, 646, 55 S.E. 9, 10 (1906) ("`To constitute suicide at common law the person must be of years of discretion and of sound mind.'"). This common law rule comports with a contemporary definition of suicide. Suicide is defined as "the deliberate and intentional destruction of his own life by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind." Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2286 (1981).
So, as we can see, this is not a simple answer. There are many factors that constitute weather the act of suicide constitutes a crime.
Personally, I fail to see how it could be considered a crime, or how a government could even enforce it in the places and under the circumstances in which it is.
My body is expressly my own property, and as such I should be allowed to do whatever I want to do with it, up to and including killing it. This is the hard-nosed NAP (non-aggression principle) part of my personality.
Even then, thought, I find it difficult to simply accept the act of suicide, as there are many cases where the one killing themselves have responsibilities to others, such as a spouse or children. Considering that, I find it to be very immoral to kill yourself when there are others who have invested time, effort, resources, and love into you, only for you to just up and kill yourself. That’s simply unfair.
I am a husband and a father, and even though I have my moments where it seems like life is simply unbearable for one reason or another, I quickly realize that my life is not just my own alone: if my wife knew I was going to eventually kill myself, do you think she would have invested these last 5 years in me? We have a baby on the way: don’t you think it would have rather chosen a man that was going to stick around even when - perhaps especially when - times got hard? It’s really unfair to her, and to my children, too: don’t you think they’d rather grow up with their birth father around, especially when the cause of his death was by his own hand?
Hmm…
I suppose it could be that suicide is a crime, as there are often responsibilities - often legal responsibilities - that are left unsatisfied. So, in the sense of contract law: yes, you are breaking the contract - whether it’s a marriage or a debt or even a job - by killing yourself. But it seems rather foolish to call it “murder against the self”. That would be like accusing yourself of theft because you ate a sandwich that belonged to you. Stupid.
Anyway, I’m curious to know what you think. Tell me in the comments.
If anything, if you're feeling suicidal, please reach out to someone you trust. If you don't have someone like that in your life, there is a hotline you can call at 1-800-273-8255, or feel free to talk to me.
Rest in peace, Anthony Bourdain...
I reckon @builderofcastles touches on the reason suicide was necessarily made illegal: arkancide. Prior to much investigatory power being able to ascertain manners of death, dropping the old man so as to inherit, or remove an inconvenient curmudgeon in the way of 'progress' was a bit more easily covert.
Making it illegal didn't make it any more uncommon however.
The push to make suicidal efforts a mental health problem, which it usually isn't, as folks are ravaged not by insanity to the point of despair, but rapine reality. Folks that live in a fantasy land of their own making are generally immune to despair. Folks that realize the impossibility of battling the banksters that have seized their homes; their life's work, with unlawful frauds and scams, and are of sound mind do despair.
Suicide often is the result of such despair, which isn't a mental illness, it's a protest against being enslaved through fraud with no recourse. I suspect that it's almost as often arkancide, though. Some folks fight back against Goliath even though the odds are daunting, and David wins too often for Goliath to be comfortable with that, making arkancide the recommended solution.
If we wanna decrease suicide we need to hold fraudsters (banksters) accountable rather than letting them get away with their scams repeatedly.
@valued-customer
hm ...
If you look at the term mental illness in my language - German/ "shift something", "displace a thing" - literally translated, then the perception of the broad reality shifts to a focal point. The desire to take one's own life is a kind of concentrated ray of salvation of an unbearable and ultimately completely senseless existence.
Therefore, I would call it "mental focus on suffering".
I had suicidal thoughts once during a major depression. And I think that my perception of the world was distorted and one-sided at the time - I have a good comparison as it now lays in the past and my outlook on life broadened again, fortunately.
I had an experience that had awakened me so violently from my illusion that the world would be a safe place and should this also be, that I was so frightened that I shrunk together as if in a reflex and escaped any courage to live.
It tormented me for a long time that I was looking for people to blame for my condition. It was only when I began to realize that waking up to the fact that life means that I cannot expect to live through my existence completely unharmed that a greater peace set in.
To make it clear: my experience had to do with fear of death and the violence I experienced before. For many years this trauma haunted me and I have to tell you that your suggestion that there are people behind it who consciously stoke it or make it possible is not very helpful because it further promotes the illusion (I must be unharmed at any time under any circumstances) and makes it more difficult to let go of it.
Which does not mean that there aren't people with bad intentions. But I can stop to blame and focus on that.
It feeds a painful body. Like the analogy that if someone squashed your foot between a door, years later you still murmur the long healed bruise and define yourself as saying that it still hurts even though there is no open wound. The perpetrator is responsible for the moment he closes the door carelessly, but not for the years of self-torture that follow. I had to forgive myself for blaming me not having had the strength to escape from the situation.
Neither do I see myself as prey nor do I see others in this way.
I do not press you for details, and don't feel they would be helpful in better understanding your circumstances. I can appreciate your experiences, and would but note that they are singular, and unique to you. Others have experienced other things.
Some of those things are sadistic depredations. I am glad you have not had that impact your life. That doesn't mean no one has.
I have.
Squashing your foot in a door on purpose is one cruel act. Some people are trapped under the control of others that strive to daily commit cruel acts. This doesn't only create mental stress, it is an actual trap and promise of more to come, and if you cannot see how this can leave one with nothing but despair, then I am glad you cannot imagine more than you can bear.
You are availed of a free and easy mind about the world, and for you that enables you to find joy. This is good.
It isn't the solution to everyone's problems, and self-torture isn't the cause of them either.
From your comments here in this course, I have found that powerful people or bankers exploit people and that some subjugate others. Now that you are talking about a personal experience and sadism, it is very different to reading about fraud or enslavement.
In media cacophony, I often hear these terms and for me, they have therefore stepped out of the personal and gone into a general lament, which I also perceive through conversations with people as a kind of intensified expression of an existence perceived as exploitation. ... In my culture, my fellow human beings are not forced to do something by force of arms or the threat of torture. People force themselves to act because they have a loan on the house or the things they want to buy but cannot afford, which is contrary to their ethics, for example.
Indeed, the personal experiences are as dreadful as they are painful. We don't need to compare mine with yours or speculate which one might have been worse.
My light-hearted attitude is to be credited to the process of recovery. ..... My desperation from that time was so strong that I seriously thought of suicide. That should be enough to let you know that we both drank from that same cup.
If my comment was not helpful to you, maybe it was because I made a criticism ... which has prompted you to concretise a little - I much better understand you now. I want to leave you asking what the solution would be for your problem. Without expecting an answer.
I'll cut to your final question about a solution to the problem of slavery and torture.
I believe that physics is creating the solution by making freedom inevitable. Technology always empowers individuals more than groups, and technology that is now on the cutting edge inevitably becomes available to even the poorest in time.
50 years ago, no king, no pampered pasha, had a cell phone. Now, most homeless people scrounging in dumpsters for their meals do.
What is technology creating today? Weaponized drone armies, 3D printing at home, cryptocurrency, and much, much more. These technologies will enable civilians to prevent armies from subjugating them. We see militarized police in armored vehicles today raiding civilian homes with extreme violence all around the world.
That will no longer be possible.
When thugs can not murder us, take our money, or enslave us without being in danger of their lives, they won't. Then, we will be free of despots, and the despair they cause.
Thanks!
http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/zen-for-neighbours.pdf
... I was long thinking of an answer to you but nothing sounded right.
If you wouldn't have survived your own story, you wouldn't be here to confirm it. Same counts for me. The story of violence or trauma needn't dominate our lives. We need all our ingenuity to get out of our closet.
It does not seem appropriate to me to teach people to fear each other, except when the lesson corresponds to the above.
@valued-customer, call me sheltered, but I'd never even heard the term arkancide and not convinced suicide was just recently deemed illegal/not a crime. Am I missing something here?
I do find your flipped view on suicide and mental health very compelling and a new view for me that rings true. Would be interesting to read/hear reasons Bourdain gave for his suicide.
Arkancide is the notorious murder of inconvenient witnesses and staging the investigation to declare it suicide.
Almost all of us are missing not just something, but much that is contrary to the interests of our predators. This is the magic of the internet: you can just search via multiple search engines on any topic you have interest in and discover information that isn't deliberately imposed on us (propaganda) by those with intent to deceive.
Of course much information is intended to deceive. I find that the more money and effort that is spent to deliver information, the more likely it is intended to deceive.
Here's another term you may not be familiar with: the enemedia. There is an industry that is intended to keep people productive prey, and those information (news) sources owned by corporate interests are most of this industry.
Think for yourself, and drop back to first principles when considering matters. By following a chain of logic and sussing out independent sources of information to treat logically, you become much more difficult to fool, and prey on.
Thanks!
Thank you for explaining arkancide--on a quick Google and glance I was getting all Clinton crap ;)
And, I completely agree with you in regards to being predated on and bombarded with enemedia. I think we'll see things get much worse.
Oddly enough, I have great hope that it is already changing in our favor. The worse they make censorship and propaganda, the more incentive they give their prey to escape it. The millions of independent bloggers and journalists, of which you are one, are escape.
We will be free eventually (people generally, not me specifically). Physics is what makes technology possible, and when you look at what technology is possible, it is glaringly obvious that mass oppression will become impossible as people gain technological advantage they are yet unable to use.
I expect despair to be reduced as oppression is. It will get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.
Good points.
I am sure you're right about technology and I wouldn't be here if I didn't have some inkling of tech taking us in new and powerful directions, and at the same time, as a person who doesn't love learning new tech tricks my thoughts can lean towards fear that I'll be left by that boat.
And, as far as getting worse, I think about no power or Internet and then how to access crypto, or communities growing out of the box? I know there are probably technological ways around what could become a mass unplugging, but not sure I'm technologically skilled enough to navigate if something like this were to happen.
I fear I might sound terribly naive here, but also curious and elevated by your hope.
There aren't any good ways I know of for cryptocurrencies to remain useful without an electrical power grid, and the internet that makes possible. So, those aren't my focus, although nothing really is, TBQH.
Community is people. Start with the people around you, where you live now, and if, God forbid, there's a crisis or disaster, you'll already have a community around you. Usually our neighbors have very similar outlooks to ourselves, and commonalities that create numerous opportunities for mutual endeavors.
Seek to avoid controversy while remaining true to your principles, and you'll be amazed at who you can get along with. I have neighbors that abhor homosexuality, and neighbors that abhor homophobia. I can still build their decks, and they can still appreciate that service.
I live in an area with geological hazards, and should those arrive, it will be a catastrophe for me. It will be less of a catastrophe for we neighbors who already work together, as we will be able to work together then, too.
Einstein said something like 'I can't predict the weapons WWIII will be fought with, but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones.' Nothing is guaranteed, but people need each other. Help them, help yourself.
So you believe that, besides acts of murder made to look like suicides ("suicided"), suicide is the result of injustice and not mental illness?
As a rule, yes. People despair for reasons, not because they're demented, for the most part. When you speak to someone struggling with suicidal ideation, that's what they say, as well. Bad things have happened that they feel aren't possible to recover from.
The word injustice doesn't encapsulate the entirety of the issue. Injustice happens, and people suffer as a result. Injustice alone doesn't create despair. Societal inequities, corrupt government and institutions, and cruel people in positions of power turn injustice into despair by making recovery impossible, or ensuring that depredations are continued repeatedly.
When people are trapped in situations that are intolerable, then they despair.
I think the argument is dumb personally.
Just people trying to lighten the mood of something.
Another "can't we be more sensitive" moment.
Committed is exactly the correct word...he commited an act....just like someone can commit an act of bravery.
Anthony committed suicide, has no direct correlation to a crime.
Btw...I have over the years watched numerous shows of Bourdain and although I wouldn't necessarily consider myself a "fan", I had a ton of respect for the work he did. My wife on the other hand was def a "fan" and it was because of her I was exposed to his fantastic content created over decades of a successful career.
Shame he's gone.
It looks like your typical sophistry.
Another helpful number to keep in mind is 741741 -- this is Crisis Text Line, and you can text this number if in crisis. It is cost free.
I work with this subject and there are best practices when it comes to reporting on suicide. It is not appropriate to report that someone "committed" suicide. There are many other nuances to carefully reporting on suicide. Our company recently presented at a Stanford event based around this topic. That is one of the basic principles that most reporters now understand (death by instead of committed).
I've seen the documents about those best practices since this incident.
Whenever I get really depressed and consider suicide I remind myself of the fact that when my time actually comes I probably will be ready to do just about anything just to postpone that moment and as its probably not that far away I might as well hang around and see what happens in the mean time, its not like it can get much worse so just a matter of patience
That's a strangely positive message lol 😂
Life is full of shit it helps appreciate the brief moments of happines in between
The reason for the narrative push is obvious. They want suicide to be more socially acceptable.
We're already being soft-killed by fluoride in the water, horrible additives in our food, lobbyist are fighting tooth and nail to keep GMOs from having to be labeled, we're having a "you're stupid if you question vaccines in the least on any level" thrown at us and I've met people who believe the proliferation of abortion clinics is some sort of positive societal morality and health indicator akin to having plentiful public toilets and brightly lit safe public walking trails.
Read the Georgia Guide Stones. They want us dead and making suicide acceptable is just one means to an end.
Don't the stones say a population of like 500,000 is desired? I might be off by a few indexes.
Add three zeros. But if course that's globally. I can't say I don't agree with much of what the stones say on one level or another, but when you think about what is actually implied to get there.....
Using soft language does not change the hardness of reality. It takes a lot of commitment to kill one's self. If he accidentally died by his own cause, it would no longer be suicide. He purposely committed the act of killing himself. That is the very definition of suicide.
@ironshield
In the circles of primitivism, what you're describing is known as reification, which is the fallacy of taking a representation of reality as reality itself. Similar to taking the finger which points to the moon as the moon itself.
People think they can change the words used to describe a terrible event and that will somehow make the event itself less terrible.
It's a massive mistake that creates a metaphysical debt that will be paid back by karma.
I do not like this one bit.
"Death by Suicide" sounds like what many of the people who knew Hitlery Clinton did.
They had obviously killed themselves, while folding themselves into a duffle bag, and then locking it.
Committed has more connotations than "committed a crime", as in commit something to memory. It says the person did something.
It appears that the media is trying to distort and water down the meanings of words. And i do not like that. Especially as i am already distrustful of that group of vipers.
Suicide is a crime in many places, else the police are powerless to do anything to help when they find someone attempting suicide. If it wasn't a crime, all they could do is watch you commit suicide. But, if it is a crime, then they can apprehend you and take you to a jail or hospital.
Water down the meaning of words..changing how we speak, thought crime, speech crime. Isn't this textbook 1984?
Indeed.
Governments percieve suicide as destroying government property in my opinion.
Please don't mistake me for saying I agree with their misperception.
Given that each citizen is sold and traded on the stock exchange as backing for debt, it is quite easy to make a case for your point.
I think we are definitely going back to times when a person was a subject to the government like in royal times rather than the current lie of governments being there to serve its citizens
Too many people are persuaded by arkencide. There is very little critical thought.
I really appreciated your points about the "contractual" obligations that someone leaves, specifically when it comes to marriage and family.
Illegal? May not according to the law of the land. Immoral? You bring up a great point.
I hope that many who have no hope can find help and peace. I hope that those who feel "lost" can find strength in people who are pursuing them. I hope that we all will choose life as long as we have the choice to make.
That's a great message. Thanks 🙏🏻
Yes, I think of the term "Died of or by Suicide" to be equivalent with "Suicided." I could be wrong but not all that die of Suicide actually committed the act themselves.
I think murder is a crime everywhere and if you murder yourself... then you won't really have to worry about a conviction or punishment, regardless of it actually being criminal in intent.
I think people should look more into who his girlfriend is and what her dad is famous for. There could be possible connections... but I won't go off into my private possible Conspiracy Theory.
I find it odd that the reports are always so fast to pump out the cause of death for the masses to consume. If it were to be a heart attack that we find out 4 months from now.... who will care when it goes down in the books of the public pop cultural relevant consciousness as an "APPARENT" suicide. I find it funny how often it's so apparent so early on in the process of investigating.
Suicide, on the other hand, is never funny and not a subject I take lightly.
Sorry for the rant, but I have been bottling this up since I found out. Felt this was a great spot to vent!
Thanks for sharing!
It seems like there are many here who are concerned with the problem of faking suicides to get away with murder.
Thanks for posting. This post brings up many angles of discussion with regard to the topic at hand. I feel like there are many layers to this conversational onion. I probably focused on the less important layer of the skin.
It's less common that a suicide is staged for the purpose of murder than a suicide happening of its own volition. I don't want to detract from that.
If Mr. Bourdain did die by suicide/commit the act himself, it's probably more tragic than if he was 'suicided.' Suicide seems to be a new epidemic in our modern times. I can understand why based on the despair Valued-Customer explained. Rather than mental illness, more often than not, it does seem to be a byproduct of despair.
My concern would be for those left behind to be able to grieve and find solace during this time. Thanks again for the conversation.
is this fake news? i cant believe. really liked him in The taste
As I mentioned, I've never actually seen any of his work, but people are speeding well of him.