Nascido em Dissonância

English version  Addendum: notes for a negative suicide I come here to clarify some points raised regarding my essay “Notes for a Negative Suicide.”  First, I wish to define more precisely what I mean by “negative suicide”: it is the act of taking one’s own life upon recognizing a negative value in existence itself — in becoming, in being, or however one may choose to name it. This “disvalue” arises, in summary, from the following aspects: the structure of the world, as it is, produces discomfort (not evil) in beings such as humans. These forms of discomfort are structural to human existence; one cannot be born without them. From this, humans, in order to endure their own being, attempt to ascribe value to themselves — whether through aesthetic, gastronomic, moral, or religious means (in short, through all kinds of “positive” activities with which we fill ourselves so as not to confront ourselves).The problem is that these values can often be destructive, manipulative, and har...

  English version  Notes for a negative suicide I begin this essay with excerpts from a poem by Fernando Pessoa: “Do you matter? (…) No one matters; you matter to no one… Without you, everything will go on without you. Perhaps it is worse for others that you exist than that you kill yourself… Perhaps you weigh more by enduring than by ceasing to endure… (…) Rest: few will mourn you… The vital impulse gradually wipes away the tears… (…) At first, in everyone, there is a certain relief from the somewhat tiresome tragedy of your death… Then conversation lightens into the everyday, and daily life resumes its course… Then, slowly, you are forgotten. You are only remembered on two dates, annually: when it is the anniversary of your birth, and when it is the anniversary of your death. (…) If you want to kill yourself, kill yourself… Do not have moral scruples or intellectual fears! What scruples or fears does the machinery of life have? (…) Do you not see that you have absolutely no ...