Self-Immolation, Anti- War, and the politics of ending ones life for a political cause.
How far would you go for a what you believed in?
Trigger Warning: This article does discuss death and specifically ending ones life. Reader Discretion is advised.
Aaron Bushnell, 25-year-old active duty member of the United States Air Force, Calmly walked up to the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. saying in an even tone.
“I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people are experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal. Free Palestine."
He then proceeded to pour a flammable substance on his head and subsequently light himself on fire.
and for about 24 hours his fate was uncertain until he later succumbed to his injuries.
Self-Immolation, the act of setting oneself on fire, has been used as an extreme form of protest against political leaders throughout the world, for example.
In Tunisia Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest politicians and lack of economic advancement in his country. after police confiscated his street cart that he used to feed his family. This was seen as catalyst that triggered the Arab Spring in the early 2010’s. The leader of his country and 5 others were disposed due to the political unrest that came from one mans self-immolation.
Quite possibly the most infamous image of self-immolation was that of Thích Quảng Đức; A Buddhist Monk who self-immolated as a form of protest against the religious persecution by catholics in South Vietnam. His protest eventually caused a U.S. backed coup that toppled the government in 1963.
Whether it works or not is a mixed hat. A man self-immolated in The Congo and while it brought unique and specific international attention the situation there is still dire.
In Russia and the Soviet Bloc in the 1960’s there were a myriad of people who self-immolated and it still took almost 30 years before change came and the Soviet Union was dissolved.
On one hand glamorizing ending ones life as a legitimate form of protest doesn’t seem right to a lot of people but to others, when all other methods of protest have failed the only thing you have left to protest is yourself.