Greetings good citizen, today's topic is one that concerns us all and it is the gnawing feeling that everybody else is (if not going) insane.
Trouble with 'insanity' is it's a qualitive judgement often made by people who aren't themselves too tightly wrapped. Yes good citizen, the very definition of 'sanity' is whatever 'the majority of society' feels is 'normal'.
So you see, we are tugging on some mighty slender threads with many 'gray areas' being very hard to define.
Ready? We're going to delve into the sticky equation of 'mental illness' and what separates the mentally ill from the profoundly stupid.
Which is to point out that 'stupidity' is itself a form of 'mental illness'. The inability to understand/failure to recognize irrationality is a handicap we are all faced with to a varying degree.
If you thought the definition of sanity left a lot to be desired, Truth makes that look like clarity defined!
Everything is a 'little bit' true, how true is where the trouble begins.
So we have a quest, one to protect our civilization from the aberrant minds that do not understand normal thinking. Because 'normal' is yet another definition the dictionary is much less than helpful with.
Before I rip the rudder out from under you completely, let's have a look at what makes us 'sane'.
First part of understanding 'sanity' (or its kissing cousin, 'insanity') is 'degrees', many people are INSANE but not to the degree where they pose a danger to society [most of the time...]
You may even suspect your own sanity from time to time for a variety of reasons, which is, ironically, perfectly normal. Those who never question their own sanity are the ones rowing with 'only one oar in the water' if you hear what I'm saying...
Another hallmark of sanity is you always question EVERYTHING along with possessing a fixed mental 'basket' of values against which you weigh all 'new' information.
[The media messes with this basket all the time, leading to the growing unease with the state of the collective mind.]
None of this growing sense of unease is alleviated by the media's propensity for lies...or contradiction.
Which is to point out that we all have an internal 'rudder' if you will that helps us focus on the relevant while discarding the, er, 'abberant'.
Those wishing to, er, 'exploit' you (and yours) employ social engineers whose sole purpose is to keep you mentally reeling, to the point you are no longer sure what 'right' is.
The polite term for this is 'manufacturing consent', which is the process of confusing you to the point where you'll agree with pretty much anything so long as it doesn't require you to actually THINK about it!
This rabbit hole only gets deeper and I think we'd best tackle it in steps rather than all at once because some of you will never be up to the trip...worse, some of you might not make it back!
Unfortunately we've only scratched the surface. Mental capacity is linked to mental stability. While Eugenics led to the institutionalizing of relatively harmless people, they weren't completely wrong. Without benchmarks and clearly defined rules regarding the facuality of public information not clearly labeled 'for entertainment purposes' our ability to sort fact from fiction might become permanently disabled...and no one will be held accountable.
Without benchmarks [competency measurements] separating who can and can't participate in running our society...given the current state of affairs, the voter lists would become very short indeed!
If we were to allow those currently in charge to draft the competency test, we'd find that all rational people would be barred from participating while those fitting the profile for institutionalization would be granted full access!
If only because the completely insane are agreeable if nothing else!
Not that this is the kind of world anyone wants to live in but the criminals obviously don't mind, as long as they don't have to rub elbows with the crazies, it feeds the 'more for them' meme they were raised with.
While 'diminished capacity' is often profound, stupid is considered a 'step up' from being being virtually helpless. The stupid function adequately but tend to get stymied easily. How 'easily' defines the degree of their affliction.
Currently the stupid, even the profoundly so, are allowed to vote.
Ironically this single factor is used by the media to explain poll results that don't jive with reality. But I digress. Actually, the whole electoral process has nothing to do with reality so barring the mentally incompetent from voting has zero effect on the, er, 'leadership' of this nation.
Whereas the mental competency of those running this nation/world/civilization is seriously in doubt...and incontestable.
But this alters nothing either. Just as making you aware of what you've long suspected changes nothing.
So I leave you to contemplate a rather uneasy future. One where mental competence is a rapidly disappearing commodity.
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
Trouble with 'insanity' is it's a qualitive judgement often made by people who aren't themselves too tightly wrapped. Yes good citizen, the very definition of 'sanity' is whatever 'the majority of society' feels is 'normal'.
So you see, we are tugging on some mighty slender threads with many 'gray areas' being very hard to define.
Ready? We're going to delve into the sticky equation of 'mental illness' and what separates the mentally ill from the profoundly stupid.
Which is to point out that 'stupidity' is itself a form of 'mental illness'. The inability to understand/failure to recognize irrationality is a handicap we are all faced with to a varying degree.
If you thought the definition of sanity left a lot to be desired, Truth makes that look like clarity defined!
Everything is a 'little bit' true, how true is where the trouble begins.
So we have a quest, one to protect our civilization from the aberrant minds that do not understand normal thinking. Because 'normal' is yet another definition the dictionary is much less than helpful with.
Before I rip the rudder out from under you completely, let's have a look at what makes us 'sane'.
First part of understanding 'sanity' (or its kissing cousin, 'insanity') is 'degrees', many people are INSANE but not to the degree where they pose a danger to society [most of the time...]
You may even suspect your own sanity from time to time for a variety of reasons, which is, ironically, perfectly normal. Those who never question their own sanity are the ones rowing with 'only one oar in the water' if you hear what I'm saying...
Another hallmark of sanity is you always question EVERYTHING along with possessing a fixed mental 'basket' of values against which you weigh all 'new' information.
[The media messes with this basket all the time, leading to the growing unease with the state of the collective mind.]
None of this growing sense of unease is alleviated by the media's propensity for lies...or contradiction.
Which is to point out that we all have an internal 'rudder' if you will that helps us focus on the relevant while discarding the, er, 'abberant'.
Those wishing to, er, 'exploit' you (and yours) employ social engineers whose sole purpose is to keep you mentally reeling, to the point you are no longer sure what 'right' is.
The polite term for this is 'manufacturing consent', which is the process of confusing you to the point where you'll agree with pretty much anything so long as it doesn't require you to actually THINK about it!
This rabbit hole only gets deeper and I think we'd best tackle it in steps rather than all at once because some of you will never be up to the trip...worse, some of you might not make it back!
Unfortunately we've only scratched the surface. Mental capacity is linked to mental stability. While Eugenics led to the institutionalizing of relatively harmless people, they weren't completely wrong. Without benchmarks and clearly defined rules regarding the facuality of public information not clearly labeled 'for entertainment purposes' our ability to sort fact from fiction might become permanently disabled...and no one will be held accountable.
Without benchmarks [competency measurements] separating who can and can't participate in running our society...given the current state of affairs, the voter lists would become very short indeed!
If we were to allow those currently in charge to draft the competency test, we'd find that all rational people would be barred from participating while those fitting the profile for institutionalization would be granted full access!
If only because the completely insane are agreeable if nothing else!
Not that this is the kind of world anyone wants to live in but the criminals obviously don't mind, as long as they don't have to rub elbows with the crazies, it feeds the 'more for them' meme they were raised with.
While 'diminished capacity' is often profound, stupid is considered a 'step up' from being being virtually helpless. The stupid function adequately but tend to get stymied easily. How 'easily' defines the degree of their affliction.
Currently the stupid, even the profoundly so, are allowed to vote.
Ironically this single factor is used by the media to explain poll results that don't jive with reality. But I digress. Actually, the whole electoral process has nothing to do with reality so barring the mentally incompetent from voting has zero effect on the, er, 'leadership' of this nation.
Whereas the mental competency of those running this nation/world/civilization is seriously in doubt...and incontestable.
But this alters nothing either. Just as making you aware of what you've long suspected changes nothing.
So I leave you to contemplate a rather uneasy future. One where mental competence is a rapidly disappearing commodity.
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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