The social dimensions of suicide are not often enough addressed. It’s high among the disabled, among Blacks in the US, among LGBT youth, among women, among oppressed castes in India, among war veterans. It cannot be personal weakness since it takes considerable strength of purpose to overcome the instinct for survival–though it does of course mean a collapse of hope for one’s life. Other examples would be the sky-high suicide rate among farmers in India being dispossessed by neoliberal economic policies in mining, agribusiness, & hydroelectric projects & the sky-high suicide rate among Guarani Indians in Brazil who are facing & resisting the same plunderous projects in Brazil. One could say, without melodrama, that suicide is an inchoate form of resistance & an expression of powerlessness–or at least a sense of powerlessness–before the implacable forces of oppression. Suicide is a social issue.