On Those Who Burned Themselves

Most of the reactions to the self-immolations of Roger LaPorte and Norman Morirson have been fatuous defensive, or at best, beside the point. Their acts have been seen largely in terms of individual psychology, when in fact they might serve as metaphors for a sense of frustration which is rather widespread. To limit speculation about LaPorte’s suicide to questions of the relationship between his act and a Catholic pacifist’s moral code; or to remarks about the way his choice of a street in front of the United Nations reflects our national mania for public relations; or to tactical considerations of whether self-immolation is the best way to oppose the Vietnam war is to avoid the most troubling questions which his suicide raises. Could a man in possession of his faculties be so depressed about the war in Vietnam, so driven and so lonely, that suicide —as a final act of commitment, of solidarity with the suffering—might come to seem as rational as, say, the publication...