Letters of Note: Be an unbeatable person and avenge my death | Hacker News Reader

Letters of Note: Be an unbeatable person and avenge my death

lettersofnote.com

9 pointsbluesmoon11 comments

Follow-up on the children: http://wgordon.web.wesleyan.edu/kamikaze/writings/kuno/index...

His wife was pregnant with a second daughter. All three went on to raise their own families in a now prosperous nation that no longer believes in war. I would think that their father would be happy with that outcome.

I found that ineffably sad; the author giving up the chance to see his kids grow up, the kids missing their father, the wife with two kids to raise, and all for nothing. (Although it would be almost as sad even if I valued the purpose.)

It's a good reminder to follow my values and build things to help people live, rather than sow hate and destruction; to combat the madness, rather than profit by it.

I think he was following his values. He was willing to give up his life to help (his) people live. I believe his goals, intention and ideals were noble. His actions, on the other hand, were horrific. That's why they say war is hell.

Help his people live? They were living fine up til then; he was helping his Emperor attempt to conquer the world.

Not really HN, but reminds me of the lyrics to sweet lullaby

    Young brother, young brother, be quiet
    You are crying, but our father has left us
    He has gone to the place of the dead
    To protect the living, to protect the orphan child

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/faq.shtml#secondsong

At some level, this sets some unrealistic expectations that may end up damaging someone at a deep psychological level. But, the idea of having a kid and having it avenge my death is rather... inviting.

It's rather sick, especially if you are going on a suicide mission, there is nothing to be avenged there, and there is nothing 'unbeatable' about dad.

I don't think many got a great state of mind before they blew themselves off.

And this guy (or the people he bombed) didn't have to die.

Are there more blogs like this?

Along similar lines, there's Strange Maps [0], which has random weird maps of all sorts. In a different vein but still dealing with correspondence is PostSecret [1], in which people anonymously send personal secrets on postcards to the author.

[0] http://bigthink.com/blogs/strange-maps

[1] http://www.postsecret.com/

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