Problem: Jennifer Michael Hecht (born November 23, 1965) is a teacher, author, poet, historian, and philosopher. She was an associate professor of history at Nassau Community College (1994-2007) and now teaches at The New School in New York City. Hecht has seven published books, her scholarly articles have been published in many journals and magazines, and her poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, The New Republic, Ms. Magazine, and Poetry Magazine, among others. She has also written essays and book reviews for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The American Scholar, The Boston Globe and other publications.

Hecht believes that, "the basic modern assumptions about how to be happy are nonsense." In a review of her book, The Happiness Myth for The New York Times, Alison McCulloch summed it up, "What you think you should do to be happy, like getting fitter and thinner, is part of a 'cultural code' -- 'an unscientific web of symbolic cultural fantasies' -- and once you realize this, you will perhaps feel a little more free to be a lot more happy." Similarly, in an interview on the Point of Inquiry podcast in 2007, she said "I'm not trying really to get somebody out of depression, but I sure am trying to get people to not be so worried, so anxious over things that really don't matter."  She has written against agnosticism, calling "philosophically silly" the argument that because you can't prove a negative we have to allow for the possibility of God. "Either you doubt everything to the point where you can't speak, or you make reasoned decisions."  Hecht is an anti-suicide advocate, writing an entire book (Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It) arguing against it. She believes not only that "Suicide is delayed homicide", but also "that you owe it to your future self to live". She does not believe in life-after-death, urging that we should remember death and remember that it's the end. "I think this world is extraordinary and I also think it's a pain in the ass. And I'm happy to be here and I'm ok with not being here forever."  She believes that morality is not magical, it is the attempt to do right. And rather than either being handed to us by God or just made up by each person, is inherent in human groups. "There are deep rules of morality that we as human beings, in human groups, 'invented' on biological and social and intellectual lines."  Her poetry and philosophy often intersect, and she has taught a course called "Poets and Philosophy" at the New School for many years. Her own taste is for poets who are concerned with philosophical or religious questions. "Leopardi's misery makes me as happy as Schopenhauer's does, though I am ever aware of the equal cacophony of birth and pleasure that shadow their admittedly much more deafening symphony of death and suffering. Dickinson I treasure beyond measure and think she's mostly on my side of the nonbeliever line; anyway, she's my number-one poet. Hopkins has a few rhyming hunks of pure passion, frustrated but wild, which I love with a love that is more than a love, but which only go so far. Donne is deep and great company, but he leans too much into comforting delusions for me, often when he is at his best in poetic chops and pyrotechnics. Rilke is a lifesaving self-help writer and a bit of a brilliant con artist."

Why is she against it?

Answer with quotes: She believes not only that "Suicide is delayed homicide", but also "that you owe it to your future self to live".


Problem: Konidela Siva Sankara Vara Prasad (born 22 August 1955), better known by his stage name Chiranjeevi, is an Indian film actor and politician. He was the Minister of State with independent charge for the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Prior to politics, Chiranjeevi has attended the Madras Film Institute, and had worked primarily in Telugu cinema, in addition to Tamil, Kannada and Hindi films. He made his acting debut in 1978, with the film Punadhirallu.

In 2008, Chiranjeevi started Praja Rajyam, a political party in the state of Andhra Pradesh. At the launch, he stated that social justice was the main agenda of his party. In the 2009 general elections, the party won 18 of the 295 seats in the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly. He was elected a Member of the State Assembly from Tirupati.  He contested from both Tirupati and Palakollu Constituencies for MLA in the 2009 general elections, winning in Tirupati but losing out in Palakollu, in West-Godavari district.  On 6 February 2011, Chiranjeevi merged the 30-month-old Praja Rajyam Party with the Indian National Congress, after two weeks of talks with Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress, which feared the no confidence motion in the state assembly in the wake of the emergence of Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSR Congress Party and the stronghold of Telangana agitation. After more than one year of merging his party into Congress, he was nominated to Rajya Sabha on 29 March 2012. He got elected and took the oath as a Rajya Sabha member on 3 April 2012. On 28 October 2012, he was sworn in as the Union Minister of State (Independent charge), Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.  After the Indian National Congress split the state of Andhra pradesh leaving the residuary state with huge debt and little revenue in June 2014, most members of the Andhra Pradesh wing of Indian National Congress party left in protest. Chiranjeevi, however, remained with Indian National Congress and did campaign for Indian National Congress as chairman of election campaign committee for 2014 parliamentary and assembly elections in residuary state of Andhra Pradesh, however, he refrained from contesting in elections. There was also criticism that he did not campaign whole heartedly due to the one sided decision taken to split Andhra Pradesh. His youngest brother Pawan Kalyan, a former Praja Rajyam Party youth wing leader, launched his own political party Jana Sena and campaigned vigorously against Indian National Congress and in favor of Telugu Desham Party and Bharatiya Janata Party. Due to the strong anti-Indian National Congress sentiment prevailing in Andhra Pradesh, its candidates were defeated in all parliamentary and state assembly seats Andhra Pradesh with 165 out of 175 candidates losing deposit [obtaining less than 10% of vote share]. Since the 2014 elections, he has maintained distance from active politics and will also end his tenure as Rajya Sabha member in April , 2018. He has not attended any sessions of Indian National Congress either.

Is he still in politics?

Answer with quotes:
he has maintained distance from active politics and will also end his tenure as Rajya Sabha member in April , 2018.