How Darwinian

Tweet

To tell you the truth, I feel a little guilty about reading about the “Darwin Awards,” the list of people who died in “here, hold my beer and watch this” moments. Some of them are funny....but you are talking about a human life ending. This one, however, is a doozy. Think about people who’ve killed themselves to make “political statements.” In the 80s I remember Bobby Sands, an Irish Republican Army member who went on a hunger strike in 1981. His strike and subsequent death were international headlines. (I’m not counting the terrorists in this, of course.) I guess the dying does get their cause some attention. That may explain why David Buckel killed himself: to raise awareness for his cause. Buckel, who was the attorney in a libel case following the murder depicted in the film Boys Don’t Cry, killed himself in New York City yesterday. As a protest against fossil fuels, he poured fossil fuel (gasoline) on himself and caused air pollution by setting himself on fire. Yeah, that’ll teach you gas-guzzling car drivers a thing or two!! He couldn’t leave NYC — infamous for its pollution — and start a “carbon footprint-free tiny house community,” could he? Just like Al Gore, who has a bigger carbon footprint than a number of towns do, or my main man Don Henley, who preaches environmentalism but couldn’t walk to the stage (or ride on a golf cart) when I saw the Eagles in 1980 but chose, instead, to ride by hiimself in one of five limos from the dressing trailers to the stage, this is a case of “do as I say, not as I do.” Only this time, an environmental protest cost a man his life. And in a pretty Darwinian fashion, too.