Craziness that Passes as Sanity

I am still reading Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right it's about Louisiana, one of the wastelands of America. The author tries her best, to understand these people, and her efforts make good reading. But she does not reach the conclusion, that these people are insane - and suffering from a fairly common form of insanity, at that.

Insanity is part of the human condition - and we should recognize it as one of the things we must expect in our lives. And consider ourselves lucky, if we can keep it under control.

One of the biggest problems we face, is deciding which behaviors are sane, and which are not. We have done a very poor job of this - and many people consider this incompetence a virtue, because it lets them be considered normal.

And indeed, polite behavior often means, accepting other people's imperfections graciously. And recognizing that people are often a mixture of good and evil.

One of the best examples of this, was the Industrial Revolution, a huge event we have never understood very well - that ended with the collapse of the USSR, in 1991. And the rise of the Computer. Although its aftershocks are still with us - in the endless war in Afghanistan.

And Religion, a subject I am reluctant to bring up, since it was, and still is - so important to my family. How can we decide which religious activities are sane? By using the same tests, we use everywhere else.

For example, when my parents retired, they moved to Mexico - to be part of a church mission there. My father loved it - he got to live in a undeveloped country and be helpful to the students the mission supported. He overlooked the craziness that was going on also.

He had done this all his life - but this time it did him in. I don't know the details of what happened - but he weakened, and a few years later - he was dead. He could not recognize the craziness in his church - that soon ceased to exist, itself.

This is one definition of insanity - it makes people less likely to survive.