Robin Williams redux

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golem1's avatar
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Finally ready to say what I have to say.

It is quite possible, quite rationally to conclude that one's life is on its final glide path, so to speak.  That is, it is no longer pleasant, no longer productive, and cannot be expected ever to get better, it can only get worse.    If one is fortunate enough to reach that point voluntarily, the rational course is to end it.

Public "personalities" -- actors (and actresses), talk show hosts, professional athletes, etc -- have a standard way to signal that their careers have entered the final glide path:  they begin to make commercials.   John Wayne did so quite some years ago.  More recently, Alec Baldwin, William Shatner, Wilford Brimley, etc.  Quite recently, Henry Winkler, Alex Trebek, Larry King.

And very recently, Robin Williams.

When one reaches that point, there are many choices of ways to end it.  Personally, I would choose the least spectacular and least painful -- asphyxia by carbon monoxide.  Robin Williams chose asphyxia, but for whatever reason did not go for carbon monoxide.

The carbon monoxide route is simple enough.   Combustion in a closed space will gradually deplete the oxygen in the air in the space, so that combustion no longer produces carbon dioxide but begins to produce carbon monoxide.    I understand carbon monoxide binds more tightly to hemoglobin than either diatomic oxygen or carbon dioxide, so in sufficient concentration it effectively shuts down the transport of oxygen to the body's cells.

That condition is sufficiently rare that we have not evolved any way to sense it.  At some point, consciousness winks out, so that as far as we tell, one is unaware of whatever comes next.

***

One can only be sad that Robin Williams is gone.   One can be glad that he suffered almost the least that is necessary.

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UPDATE:
Must add this, with regret.   Have just learned that there is something called "autoerotic asphyxia".    It is being suggested that the practice was involved in Robin Williams' death, which would imply that he didn't mean to kill himself at all.   I don't know what to think.

 
© 2014 - 2024 golem1
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WrenchMan's avatar
I have been reading all the stuff they are saying about him and watching all the niche causes rise up and "use" him as a poster boy for their cause. Let the man rest in peace. If, as you say, he decided to go out at apogee instead of gliding in a never ending spiral, then give the man a hand for deciding his own fate. Most of the rest of us just don't have the balls to take our own fate into our hands and say "this is were my  story ends".