> I have little tolerance for people that are hypocritical on that scale.
What are you going to do, write him a nasty letter? It's not even necessarily hypocritical. He didn't make the claim that one should value productivity over all other things. As can be said of all suicides, he lived his life as well as he knew how and then he ended it when he didn't know how to live it anymore. Let's enjoy what there is to enjoy about his legacy and let his mistakes, minor as they are, fade.
I don't necessarily believe that respect is due unconditionally after death, e.g Hitler and Stalin are definitely not deserving.
I don't agree that Aaron was hypocritical at all though. He has been far more productive in his tragically short life than most. I know that he has done more combined than myself and all that I know in person.
The fact he has achieved what he has with severe depression makes him far less of a hypocrite. It's very hard to get yourself to do anything with depression. I couldn't and it wasn't half as bad as Aaron's.
Fact is Aaron died because he lost a battle to an illness, much like all those who have died from physical diseases. Depression is a mental illness and a suicide due to that is not the resposibility of the victim, much like when someone with severe schizophrenia wouldn't be responsible if they had killed someone based on their delusions.
He is not a hypocrite. It actually makes this advice far more powerful.
What are you going to do, write him a nasty letter? It's not even necessarily hypocritical. He didn't make the claim that one should value productivity over all other things. As can be said of all suicides, he lived his life as well as he knew how and then he ended it when he didn't know how to live it anymore. Let's enjoy what there is to enjoy about his legacy and let his mistakes, minor as they are, fade.