Capitalism & Anomie and their Relation to Suicide-- Sessen Stephanos

Durkheim's proposal of capitalism and anomie can be seen in the contemporary world. One of the most prominent examples is that of the third world countries such as Tibet. Tibet has consistently been scoring the highest on the Happiness Index Scale, and there have been a lot of explanations as to why, most prominent explanation being their Buddhist way of life. To break it down more, we can apply Durkheim's perspective which suggests that an increase in wealth leads individuals to create more goals, in order to accumulate more money. When these goals are not met, or the amount of wealth is no longer sufficient to keep individuals happy, an increase in suicide occurs. Durkheim suggests that poverty protects against suicide as desires no longer depend on resources, and instead on social relations. He states, that this is the reason why some many religions emphasize constant self discipline. And we can see its success in Tibet under Buddhism.

I think Tibet is a very good example. It's not because Tibet is the third world country, but Tibet strictly regulates influx of western, industrialized, capitalistic cultures. Tibet even restricts the number of tourists that can visit in a day in order to prevent any harm or influence those tourists from the other cultures can have on their own. Tibetan build their own way of living that further strengthens national solidarity. Any cultural influence of other countries that possibly encourage possession of resources and value of capitals is kept away. Being away from mainstream industrialized, capitalistic westernized culture, Tibet maintains happiness and solidarity among people.

I think that one way Durkheim would approach your point is that Tibet benefits from maintaining a strong cultural identity that resists external change from other societies. In a world where Western nations have colonized other peoples and left their cultural impression behind them, Tibet is a rare case where this influence was actively mitigated. Durkheim would likely consider this a social fact because Tibet is a variable that was not affected by Western colonialism in the same way as other nations, and the outstanding difference is their resistance to this influence. I would say that from Durkheim's perspective, it is worth investigating whether Tibet is the world's happiest country in part because of their cultural cohesion. This cohesion increases solidarity among Tibetans as an "in-group," and their religious alignment provides a clear understanding of morality. Both issues are considered to benefit a social group according to Durkheim's theory of sociology.

I agree that with more wealth does not bring more happiness. As the fact that every person has a greedy mind deep inside, with more wealth, it would only bring more dissatisfaction. How much wealth is enough? There is never an end on this question. As one accumulates more wealth, his/her quality of life increases. With the increase in quality of life, the cost also increases. As a result of this, there is the cycle which is there will be an end to how much money you have is enough. However, if you are like Bill Gates, I'm sure with that amount of wealth it would be enough. But how many people are like Bill Gates around the world? Just a handful of people. So for the average individual, more wealth may not increase the satisfaction on life.

Nayantara, I agree with your comment on how Durkheim's proposal of capitalism and anomie is happening in our contemporary society. In my opinion, the idea of anomie and people committing suicide comes from capitalism. In countries that capitalism works best have people committing suicide than third world countries that are in poverty. When people go through an increase in wealth and to become successful, they work so much that they forget what the meaning of life is to them, so when taking away the wealth they receive leads to anomie. The more money people chase in a capitalist world, the easier for them to commit suicide when they are not able to get commodity and wealth in the long run. I believe that third world countries are more happier and healthier than rich countries because they do not work too hard and they accept whatever they get, but in countries where capitalism plays the most, the people are less happier and healthier and they have higher chances in committing suicide and going through depression.

Nyantara, I agree with your example of Tibet and would also like to contribute another example to anomic suicide in the opposite case. If you take many of the First Nation groups in Canada as examples of communities that feel out of place of the dominating western society, one can have a clearer picture of the anomie these groups feel. This would explain the higher suicide rates among the community members in relation to the social circumstances they are put under by the rest of society.