LEARNING FROM THE DEATH OF ROBIN WILLIAMS

It has taken almost six years since his suicide in 2014 for me to go back to viewing Robin Williams on video. His channeled hypomania was a fundamental source of joy in my life prior to his death. I wouldn't miss any of his performances that came my way, usually on premium cable.

Robin's suicide in August of 2014 was reported on front pages internationally. Few performers evoke the personal sense of connection that he did by making people laugh until they cried. His silliness struck a universal funny bone. His quick wit inspired awe. His ability to look out into a TV audience and connect with individuals was remarkable.

And how did this amazing human being end his life? He hanged himself with a belt in his home. He was alone, depressed and desperate.

I write this as we emerge from the insane global panic over a viral infection. Statistically, the death toll has been comparable to most other seasonal viral infections. Governments that have shut down whole countries and destroyed economies have rationalized their intrusion on personal choice and social commerce with unsupportable claims that this virus could have killed millions. They have mouthed words like "disease models" to justify their actions.

The statistics do support the notion that the virus was a serious threat to the same populations threatened by all other viruses: Old people, people with inadequate immune systems, and people with pre-existing respiratory or cardiac conditions. In other words, acute infections and fatalities have occurred in greatest numbers in these populations, as could have been predicted. As a person in a vulnerable group, I get it. 

But, there is definitely something wrong here. This same civilization which was ineffectual in easing the devastation of Robin Williams' diagnosis with a form of dementia related to Parkinson's Disease has shut itself down to protect people who could easily have stayed home and self-isolated to avoid infection. 

Robin Williams was famous, beloved, affluent. He had a wife. He had three adult children. He had close friends. Yet he was so desperate and alone with his death sentence from his incurable disease that he felt compelled to kill himself in a terrible way. Even a severely depressed person would have taken a better option than slowly choking to death in isolation. 

A society which is so ostensibly pro-life that it will commit economic and social suicide over a virus which would not seriously harm the vast majority of its population is also a society which would abandon one of its national treasures to hang himself with a belt rather than provide a compassionate alternative choice. Is this the society rational human beings prefer? Apparently all too many do. 

There are those who will read this and shrug. They won't get it. Those are the folks who have never been critically ill. Those are the folks who have never spent seemingly endless hours incapacitated by trauma or disease. They think longevity in itself is quality of life. Their ignorance is forgivable as long as it does not govern social or governmental policy. Then it is unethical. Then it endangers personal freedom itself.