SUICIDE IS CONTAGIOUS--AND NOT JUST IN GAZA. While The LA Times is reporting that obesity is contagious, Seth Godin in "since 1968" blogged back in 2004 about copycat suicides by children--in India, reported by the BBC. Since 1968 writes:

Incredibly, the wave of suicides in India is nothing new; according to [author Malcolm] Gladwell, Micronesia recently experienced a suicide epidemic among teenage males in which the suicide rate peaked at 160 per 100,000 (the comparable rate in the United States is 22 per 100,000). According to Gladwell, suicide rates temporarily rise when a suicide is reported by the media, and the type of mimicked suicide corresponds to the type of reported suicide; for instance, a famous suicide by car accident would cause a rash of other suicides by car accidents, but not a rise in suicide by gun or pills. Gladwell writes:

Here we have a contagious epidemic of self-destruction, engaged in by youth in the spirit of experimentation, imitation, and rebellion. Here we have a mindless action that somehow, among teenagers, has become an important form of self-expression. In a strange way, the Micronesian suicide epidemic sounds an awful lot like the epidemic of teenage smoking in the West. [emphasis added]

These suggests a more complex explanation for Islamist suicide bombers than the simplistic blaming of economic conditions--an explanation most recently discredited by the number of Muslim doctors who have been revealed to be involved in terrorist plots. Even among Palestinian Arabs who methodically train their children to murder Jews, their culture has already evolved into a self-perpetuating epidemic self-destruction and despair that may be mirroring what Gladwell describes.

In effect, the Palestinian leadership has developed something that is more fitting for the overused phrase "cycle of violence."

Seth Godin updated this post in another blog:

The most important thing you can do is choose who you're hanging out with. The second high-leverage thing is to put dynamics in place that reinforce the ideas you'd like to see spread. Celebrate the heroes. Make it easy for those ideas to spread...

Or as Chazal put it: “Oy LaRasha VeOy LeShcheino”...“Tov LaTzaddik VeTov LeShcheino.”

Technorati Tag: Suicide and Suicide Bombers and Malcolm Gladwell and The Tipping Point.