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Youth suicide:

The young and the damned

by Simon Longstaff

The year ahead will probably be one of magnificent distractions. For a start there will be all of the pomp and circumstance associated with the Centenary of Federation. Then there will be the drama associated with a swag of State and Federal elections. Yet, in the midst of so much razzamattaz, I hope that we will not lose sight of the deeper issues facing our society.

Of these, none is more troubling than the plight of our young people and the evidence of a growing number who are disillusioned to a point where life literally has no meaning.

All of this was brought home to me with a jolt during a recent holiday in regional Australia. 'Michael' is a local teacher. In the course of a brief car journey he told me that, in the past twelve months, eight of his former students attempted suicide. All of them were between the ages of 18 and 22. Tragically, four of the attempts were successful. As he said, "if eight people can attempt suicide within my small circle of contact, imagine how extensive the larger problem must be".

Deeply troubled by Michael's story, I began to raise the issue of youth suicide with others living in this region. Sadly, most people had a related story to tell. A common factor was that those taking their lives often included'high achievers. With good looks, charm, popularity, academic and sporting prowess; they seemed to have everything society values. Following the death of one golden child a member of his peer-group was heard to say, "he was everything that I wanted to be. If he couldn't stand this life, then what's left for me?".

I asked 'Michael' to tell me why he thought eight young people had been prepared to take their lives. After all, the challenges facing older generations have often been at least as great as that facing young people today. Why would so many contemplate suicide today, when it would have been unthinkable for most just a few decades ago? 'Michael' offered two possible reasons.

First, he observed that contemporary standards of success almost exclusively revolve around concepts of material prosperity.

In our time and our society, the intrinsic value of a virtuous character has been assailed by the idea that a person's worth can be measured according to their income and possessions. If this is so, then many young people may be led to conclude that success in life can only be relative; that only a few will ever achieve, in abundance, those things that are the mark of personal value. When the myths of ultimate success through individual endeavour fall flat in the face of evidence that most people end up where they started, then the cocktail for despair has received its first potent ingredient.

Although 'Michael' is wary of organised religion, the second reason that he offered for widespread despair was the absence of anything that young people could really believe in. Directly related to this was an absence of meaning to their lives. 'Michael' thinks that earlier generations valued their lives more because there was a metaphysical framework that recognised the essential dignity of all people - irrespective of their possessions. Allied to this was a framework of ritual - complete with rites of passage that helped mark progress through life. Without this, life can appear like a sterile plain where the very idea of progress (of any kind) seems to be illusory.

Of course, 'Michael's' analysis is not original. Many others criticise the loss of the sacred from our public life and criticise the worldliness that seems to have replaced all other standards of value. However, I have never heard it so forcefully put that these features of our world are quite literally killing the future. Yet, this is a thought that is now lodged in my mind. And it disturbs me with every day.

So, is there a way out of this predicament? For a start, I do not personally believe that we should seek to engineer a return to some 'golden age' of past contentment. Recycling the events of human history inevitably becomes a pastiche on the past that inspires nobody. Nor can we afford to limit politics to a debate about who can best secure the economic fundamentals.

Rather, we owe it to the future to initiate a serious and sustained discussion about what really matters to us as a people. We need to consider the possibility that Australians might share the ideal of working together to create something worth believing in as a great endeavour of the human spirit - and not simply as a means to personal enrichment. In this year (of all years) surely we can find room to discuss such issues - no matter how uncomfortable they might make us feel.

Because of 'Michael' I know of four voices, now fallen silent, who might have stayed to talk about such things, if asked. There are hundreds of others who have walked into the same, dark silence.

I cannot believe that this is the best our society has to offer. However, of our leaders, who will have the courage to step forward and light the way?

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