Posted by
Grampus on Monday, April 09, 2007 9:07:55 PM
Insanity has become a national pastime. All one has to do to verify
this claim is watch daytime television and the TV evening news, read
the daily newspapers, the weekly tabloids, and the news magazines,
listen to talk radio and the rantings of politicians on C-Span, or get
into a debate at a cocktail party. Insanity is all around us. It's
permeated the Halls of Congress and the Halls of Justice. It's been
traveling rapidly across the country from shore to shore, border to
border, and even to Hawaii and Alaska.
Americans have become so self-absorbed in entertainment, celebrity
worship, instant gratification, sex and violence that traditional
values and morals have lost all importance. In this age where we are
constantly subjected to information that is totally irrelevant and
frivolous in most cases, our entire social structure is on a verge of
collapse. As we continue down this path, it is inevitable that we will
go the way of the Roman empire and cease to exist, not from military
force, it is intellectual insanity that will conquer us.
Insanity has become contagious and is even affecting the youngest
residents of our nation. It is dividing the country into parochial
groups of narrow-minded citizens, establishing hate, anger, and bigotry
as the ordinary sentiments of daily life, causing uncivil behaviors to
be the acceptable form of debate, and creating and implementing
absolutely ridiculous sociopolitical policies which are nothing short
of insane. Insanity, while spreading rapidly across America during the
past thirty years or so, can be stopped. There is a cure, an antidote,
a means of treatment. It's not easy to get back to sanity today, but it
can be done.
What Is Insanity?
The first thing we
need to do is make sure each one of us understands exactly what we're
talking about here. The mark of a good debater used to be that he or
she defines the terms to be used in the debate right up front. I
realize that today it is acceptable to change the meanings of words
throughout a debate so as to confuse the opposition (and yourself, as
well), but I try to be a strict word-freak and firmly believe that
words have consequences and are a powerful tool (or weapon, if you
prefer). Also, this phenomenon of constantly using the same words in
different ways to confuse the issue being debated is one of the
symptoms of the insanity we'll be discussing.
Therefore, in
due consideration of what I've just said, I want to give you the
definition of insanity that is common to the general dictionary most of
us use.
in-san-i-ty: 1. the state of being insane; mental
illness or derangement, usually excluding amentia; not a scientific
term; specif., Law any form or degree of mental derangement or
unsoundness of mind, permanent or temporary, that makes a person
incapable of what is regarded legally as normal, rational conduct or
judgment. 2. great folly; extreme senselessness.
I suggest that: 2. great folly; senselessness is the condition affecting all of society today.
This is so you'll know that this is not the way we're going to use the
word "insanity," strictly speaking. Most of this definition is
acceptable but some of it is not. So let's tear into it and rip it
apart.
Obviously, as the dictionary notes, insanity has to be
the state of being insane. I hope the word "state" is not confusing to
you as it is definitely not referring to the forty-eight contiguous
used-to-be-sovereign "states" of the United States. Plus Hawaii and
Alaska, of course. No, the word "state" in the definition refers to a
condition, as the condition of being insane. The concept of "mental
illness" in the definition we'll keep and understand it as a problem of
the "mind," having to do with some "disease" of thinking.
You
can scratch the word "amentia" which refers to a condition one is born
with. That's not applicable here because no one is born insane in the
sense to be used here. As I've already suggested, this insanity is
generally "caught" from the environment; it is contagious. Actually,
most people are born quite sane. Unfortunately, too many become insane
as they grow up (or down, if you insist).
Grampus