Logan Paul found opportunity swinging from a tree in a Japanese forest known as a place where suicides happen. When he found it, he made a video, and posted it for the world to see, hoping for notoriety commonly sought by a person who identifies as a “YouTuber.
For morbid effect, he noted purple hands, and the recency of the event on which he would capitalize for fame, but which has now earned him infamy; a more valuable commodity in our society. For morbid effect, he feigned a look of horror that somehow looks similar to the expression of a lottery winner.
He noted his find as the first of its kind in his experience, and he tried to wax empathic with some words to emphasize the gravitas of suicide, all the while shifting his camera to the object sure to draw clicks; another valuable commodity in our society.
What Logan Paul failed to find in Aokigahara Forest was all the pain and suffering that had just drained from the body, and lay in the leaves beneath him. He failed to find the maelstrom of desperation, hopelessness, and intent that swirled in the oxygen deprived brain that swung above him.
Paul failed to see depression, chronic, or acute. Or perhaps it was Bipolar Disorder, Schizophrenia, even something as relatively insignificant to him as Panic Disorder. Maybe he failed to see a lost love, a home repossessed, termination from a precious job. Maybe it was a terminal diagnosis.
He failed to see devastated loved ones. Maybe children without a father; parents who outlived their child; a wife.
He failed to see all the events of a past that led to a final moment of blended desperation and relief.
He failed to see a future forever unrealized.
Logan Paul failed to see a person swinging from that tree in Japan. He failed to see humanity, its frailty, its value beyond the value its tragic end brought to him.
He failed to see the painful memories of other suicides recounted by viewers of his video. He failed to see his exploitative act as a trigger, or erasure of a last shred of hope to those vulnerable people for whom hope is in such short supply.
Its our responsibility to see Logan Paul, and anyone like him whose notoriety is gained through someone else’s tragic loss. It is our responsibility to hold accountable anyone who exploits tragedy for personal gain.
An Expression of Faux Horror