Logan Paul And The Mockery Of Suicide

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It is rare for me to find something or someone genuinely offensive, but a news story breaking this morning proved to be an exception to the rule. It concerns a Video blogger (Vlogger) called Logan Paul and his desecration of a Japanese forest noted for the number of suicides that take place there. I’ll talk about the forest first. Aokigahara is a forest growing on a volcanic area on the slopes of Mount Fuji. Much of the region is filled with ice-blocked cave holes that have the eerie effect of absorbing sound. This gives the place a spooky atmosphere that has earned the forest a reputation for being haunted. The site is a major tourist attraction and sadly, it also attracts many depressed people who choose to commit suicide among the trees. There are many notices there advising those contemplating ending their lives to think again and seek help. Many visitors create blog about the sad atmosphere of the area. Most treat the forest with alldue awe and respect. It is after all a memorial garden for the relatives of those who chose to die there. Then came Logan Paul. He is a Z-list vlogging celebrity, with a few minor movie roles and fame for no other reason than being famous. Touring Japan, he arrived with a whole crew of film-makers and admirers in Aokigahara right after the New Year. He was dressed in a silly monster hat with multiple eyes and generally goofed around prattling about how spooky the woods are, though clearly not taking any of it seriously. Things then got really serious when by sheer dumb luck he stumbled on a body, a man who had committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree possibly just hours before Paul arrived. He should have phoned the police to report the find. Instead he got footage of the body, and laughed at one of his friends for being spooked by the discovery. He didn’t treat the find as a terrible tragedy, but as if it was the coolest jape ever. He and his crew trampled all over a scene that needs forensic investigation. He couldn’t wait to post his findings, only having the sense to mercifully crudely pixilate out the face of the deceased. His blog and twitter audience fortunately reacted with great disgust, and the video was quickly removed though edited copies are widely circulated by commentators. Paul has made desperate attempts to apologize, as his reputation ha ended up in tatters, deservedly so, saying crassly that it wasn’t done for attention as he has lots of fame and attention anyway. His lack of respect for a dead man, mental depression, and grieving families is astonishing. The indignity for the dead guy to find himself a plaything for an insensitive selfish moron is making me so angry. I never heard of Aokigahara until this incident. I wish I had learned of it a better way. I would like to visit the forest but it would be with all due reverence and respect for the people who choe it as their final look at the World. It is certainly not a place for a pathetic Narcissistic clown like Logan Paul. Arthur Chappell