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Because Suicide is New?

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This is the sort of bullshit that I allow to needlessly get under my skin.

It’s the usual story: church supremo or other societal elder is befuddled and scared by the new generation, changing times, and rapidly evolving technology.  Seeing opportunity where others would only drown their confusion and lack of relevance in the bottle, our protagonist seeks a return to the tier of mattering by expressing sincere concern and opining about how said new technology / fad / fashion / etc. leads today’s youth down a path of isolation, despair, and the ultimate final choice.  It’s all the fault of Rock and Roll!  TV!  Video Games!  
No, I’ve got it!  Twitter!
No theory, no evidence, no research, no worries!  The holes in Archbishop Nichols’ arguments are so obvious I’m neither going to patronize you nor expand my carbon footprint by stealing a large SUV and driving it through them.  After opining on the evil of facebook, myspace and their ilk (god only knows what he thinks about that new menace to society, twitter) the article also offers up this gem:

He also voiced his concerns about the loss of loyalty and the rise of individualism in British society, singling out footballers for acting like “mercenaries”.

Because that’s new.
I’m not going to completely reject out of hand everything he says, and there is some resonance in his (admittedly the opposite of original) assault on the rise of individualism, but it’s arguably the same Tories that he is now embracing (by echoing David Cameron’s call for a “cooling off period” for divorce in the UK) that introduced this hyper individuality in the UK.  Remember, it was Maggie Thatcher who, in 1987, famously observed that “there is no such thing as society”, and her policies weren’t exactly communal in nature.
Incidentally, according to The Times article, the Archbishop is on facebook.  As others on facebook have pointed out, that’s nothing less than hilarious (though I think it was another word beginning with the letter H that was more often employed).  While The Times points out that they have been unable to confirm the accuracy of this entry, skimming his 333 friends makes it appear legitimate (or an extremely well crafted hoax).  There are even a couple based here in Portland, Oregon, where I am spending my summer . . . so I should watch my back.
We have no mutual friends on facebook.
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