Being sane in insane places

"Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence - whether much that is glorious - whether all that is profound - does not spring from disease of thought - from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect."

~ Edgar Allan Poe. From: Complete Tales and Poems.

Sanity: soundness of mind and mental health; the state of being sane; is at best of times a questionable concept - a hypotheses, an idea, an image or impression, a notion, theory, or view. When a person does not adhere to the norms of socially dictated conduct, society has a tendency to brand that person insane. From birth, we are conditioned to, accept, and submit to, social dicta in all most all things essential to living as a part of society. From determining what is right and wrong values, to the correctness of one's conduct, social pressure dictates on all matters and forces us into submission without question; until someone bold-enough comes along to defy and rewrite social norms. That society itself is multifaceted, multifarious, and characterised by variety of criteria, dependent upon place and time, changing from place to place, village to village, city to city, country to country, are conveniently forgotten; so much so, it seems that in a mad world, only the mad are sane. Hence, when dealing with the insane world, the best method is to pretend to be insane. But do remember that, truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence. "Great wits are sure to madness near allied, and thin partitions do their bounds divide." John Dryden.

Madness is tonic and invigorating. It makes the sane, saner. The only ones who are unable to profit by it are the insane because insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people, who are willing to admit that they are crazy.

Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you said Carl Gustav Jung, the famous psychotherapist and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology. The truth is that one person's craziness is another person's reality.

Inside each of us, without exception, there is in effect, a madman, a madness, struggling to get out; and that accounts for the crazy behaviour many of us encounter, or indulge in at times. Take for instance our bus drivers, many motorists, two and three wheel drivers, and many more such examples; or for that matter, our elected representatives and those electing them; and one wonders if they are sane. Is it ever possible to explain some of their actions rationally?

Thus, the greatest challenge we face as humans, is to remain sane in insane places amidst insane people. Perhaps, at this very moment, some of you may be wondering whether I am sane. Be assured, insanity in individuals is something rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. If sanity refers to the soundness, rationality, and healthiness, of the human mind, a person is determined sane if he/she is rational.

In modern society, the terms have become exclusively synonymous with having mastery of mind, in contrast with a troubled conscience.

In The Sane Society, published in 1955, psychologist Erich Fromm proposed that, not just individuals, but entire societies "may be lacking in sanity". Fromm argued that one of the most deceptive features of social life involves "consensual validation."

He says: "It is naively assumed that the fact that the majority of people share certain ideas or feelings proves the validity of these ideas and feelings. Nothing is further from the truth... Just as there is a folie à deux there is a folie à millions.

The fact that millions of people share the same vices does not make these vices virtues, the fact that they share so many errors does not make the errors to be truths, and the fact that millions of people share the same form of mental pathology does not make these people sane." The same sentiments were expressed by J. Krishnamurthy, Indian born speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects who was widely considered as a World Teacher, when he said: It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." Assent, and you are sane; demure, and you are straightaway dangerous, is the rule of society.

However, having seen where this society, of ours, has led us to; I am inclined to agree with George Bernard Shaw, and say: we want a few mad people now. See where the sane ones have landed us! It is no wonder that ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools; the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane:" Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor. Most people assume that the majority is right, that society is normal and sane, and that the misfit, dissident, loner, or nonconformist is abnormal and possibly mentally ill.

That is what they are programed and conditioned to believe. We have been taught, that it is a virtue to agree with others; we have been taught, that it is a virtue to swim with the current; we have been taught, that it is a virtue to stand together. It is a classic "cattle control" method of getting the herd to keep itself in line, which many unscrupulous persons use to achieve their diabolical aims.

However, many great thinkers, intellectuals, and writers throughout history have said the opposite. The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by, the tribe.

If you try it, try to be different, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

We are in the process of creating what deserves to be, called, the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun, but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird, and the stupid, and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.

"The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is, geared to this kind of pathology.

The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those who suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society - and he may suffer so much from the incapacity to communicate that it is he who may become psychotic." From: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by Eric Fromm, Swiss Psychologist.

Thus, insanity becomes a perfect rational adjustment to an insane and idiotic world.

Reality is always controlled by, the people who are most insane. Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside down.

Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroys information, and religion destroys spirituality. This is the truth, even if I say this as a minority of one.

Let me end this with, The Parable of the Poisoned Well:

There was once a wise king, who ruled over a vast city. He was, feared for his might, loved for his wisdom. Now in the heart of the city, there was a well whose waters were pure, crystalline, and from which the king and all the inhabitants drank.

When all were asleep, an enemy entered the city and poured seven drops of a strange liquid into the well. He said that, henceforth, all who drink this water shall become mad.

All the people drank of the water, but not the king. And the people began to say: "The king is mad and has lost his reason. Look how strangely he behaves. We cannot be ruled by a madman, so he must be dethroned."

The king grew very fearful, for his subjects were preparing to rise against him. So one evening, he ordered a golden goblet to be filled from the well, and he drank deeply.

The next day, there was great rejoicing among the people, for their beloved king had finally regained his reason.

See you this day next week. Until then, keep thinking; keep laughing.

Life is mostly about these two activities.

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