AjDeath said:
Respect for the shooter? I am supposed to respect someone who just murdered someone, and because I don't I am a bad person. Fuck you.
I feel an Anus-esque rant coming on.
In your view murder and death are the worst things in the world. In mine, they are not. For me, the importance is in what the man who was murdered accomplished in life, and what effect that murder will have. I don't believe in equality, thus I don't feel that everyone is equally deserving of respect in life. And death is simply an end - the moment a person dies his worth can be evaluated as a whole, and only if that worth is positive should he be given respect.
None of this "respect the dead" crap 'cause, let's be realistic, he's never going to know about it anyway. None of this "pity those close to him for their loss" either; pity and sympathy are, to me, totally unproductive. Such emotions run riot in weak minds.
Great heroes fight, if necessary, to the death for what they believe in, and such people will get great respect from me for such a thing, and I may find the beauty of such an act overwhelming enough for a form of sadness in some cases. If one of these people dies such a great death - sacrificing themselves for something that transcends the individual, it should be a glorious and triumphant day, not a day in which we mourn and grieve and pity - like death inherently causes in current society regardless of the death's form.
Someone like Quorthon has my respect for having created something I consider valuable, but I won't claim that there was any reason for him to live longer taking into account that his abilities were certainly deteriorating. How can I say that - you ask? Because I believe that death isn't something to be feared or grieved, it will happen to us all and achievment in life should easily transcend the suffering and loss that death causes. If anything, Quorthon's early death prevents him from tarnishing my opinion of him further, because he was certainly struggling and may have begun to stagnate even moreso.
It's only in a society like this one - based on ridiculous values - in which death is rejected and feared as something intrinsically 'bad' that we should try to avoid - people even feel the need to believe in an 'afterlife' because they're so desperate to avoid no longer existing. I won't bore you with going into even greater detail, but this mentality basically leads to mass degeneration and weakness. I, valuing progression and mental strength, oppose it.
You don't care about the shooter's death - and why should you - he's murdered someone whose life you valued. That's fair enough; though I could question your reasons for valuing him, I don't question your apathy towards the killer's subsequent demise. I'm personally glad that the guy died as well, indications are that he was an ass in a number of ways, and I don't think what he did has done anyone much good, really.
But if you feel that some deaths are less important than others, why can't I? Because murder and the murderer of someone YOU consider great is "objectively" bad while Dimebag's life being unimportant is just my opinion? No, there's no inherent value (ignore that I've said otherwise in the past), we can only determine what we ourselves value, and fight for them. I happen to be one of few who doesn't simply go by society's values without questioning their logic. I happen to be one of few who doesn't care about every death that happens, and refuses to pretend that he does. Hold me in contempt for that if you wish, but I'm certainly no "worse" than you.
My view is that Dimebag was unlikely to achieve anything more in his life, and has achieved little more than a host of shit music, and worship from lots of drunken incestuous rednecks and people who love looking at the shallower aspects of music. I have no reason to grieve his death, respect the man in question, or have much care about any aspect of these events, except possibly to analyse the effect they'll have on metal in general.
The suits will sink them into oblivion where they belong. There is no heaven or hell about it.
