What a Lot of Nonsense

On Twitter, the socialist writer Owen Jones praises the man who burned himself to death in support of Hamas:

I am always fascinated by mawkish statements such as these, mostly because I have no earthly idea what they are supposed to mean. What’s Jones’s implication here? That if you don’t burn yourself to death, then you don’t have as much “humanity” as people who do? That a figure such as Owen Jones has quite a lot of humanity, but not as much Aaron Bushnell, and that the difference between them is a pint of gasoline and a safety match? What determines one’s level? Is it the act of setting oneself on fire? And does the conflagration have to be complete? What if you burn yourself but don’t die? If I were to singe my leg, would I then have more humanity than Jones? Would he be subsequently able to catch up with me if he set fire to his torso? What about a little mustache-searing between friends? Should everyone with too much humanity self-immolate?

Or is it perhaps that having too much humanity is a problem, like ingesting too much water? That humanity is good in the correct amount — necessary, even — but that one can overdo it? Evidently, people who don’t have any humanity are bad. But, under Jones’s model, those who have “too much” seem to be obliged to combust — which isn’t ideal, is it?

What absolute nonsense these people speak.