How big is my insanity

First of all what is insanity, is it the same as insane, and how is it applied? Or the term madness? Are they the same or interchangeable?

Just a few crazy questions this morning. I have been thinking about this for awhile, what is insanity, and what is going on in this country for this election and for more than this election.

I think most people have heard Einstein's famous quote about insanity which is something like: insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

In comparison I was watching a repeat of CONAIR the movie the other night and the craziest psychopath character defines insanity has having the same job for decades then retiring to a home and doing nothing else for the rest of your life, or something like that. Okay it was somewhat late at night so hopefully that was the gist of it. And I wonder if I am there.

A couple of divergent definitions of insanity. Where does all this leave us now though?

I typed the word insanity into Google and there were 83,500,000 results. I typed insane and got 215,000,000 results. Some of this is duplicate entries from different sources, but with so much out there no one really has a handle on insanity etc.

And how we treat it in popular culture seems to lessen its impact. People say things like oh my God that is insane, or other trite statements. Or where does a joke like: what are a redneck's last words...hey bubba watch this or even the movie Jackass, haven't watched, but heard about and seen ads, could you not consider this insane?

Is insanity a mental illness like bi polar disorder? Or is it being addicted to drugs, alcohol, or pornography? Or is it unable to conform to social norms? Is it all or none of the above?

Everyone seems to view insanity differently. What I consider normal to many maybe insane. I ramble on occasionally about the need for a new political party, yet most people seem quite content with our current parties. Does this make me insane? And is that the definition, if I don't like what you are saying,then you are insane. There seems to be much of that attitude out there.

Or if we can't define insanity, can we define normal? And yes even with flipping the terms we still get the same answer. Some people's norms are different than others. So is this bad? And that could depend. I think we can define some clear truths or norms to a large degree, most people consider killing to be against some type of norm. Rape, Stealing, general violence, destruction of private property, and you hope you could put treating others with respect in this sentence, but I am not sure nowadays, you should be able to, but boy just listen to the world and wow.

Norm v insanity. Is that an argument? Are they diametrically opposed? So what got me to the point to actually writing something today? Get to that in a second, because it actually scared me what I read.

First back to my general arguments about the continued acceptance of our current political parties and their policies. We, as a country seem to accept that this is the only path, we choose one or the other and that's it. And you can say the modern Democrat and Republican choice has been going on for centuries now, but do they offer us the best solutions. (see Einstein's quote above) We seem to be missing the true problems facing our country. We have multi generational poverty, failing education system that has nothing to do with how many teachers or even the quality of teachers, well good quality helps and we do have good teachers, it is the whole education system that is flawed, healthcare debate is a shambles, no one trusts the other sides' interpretation of the facts, and this debate really shows two of the problems, a lack of trust and the ability to actually view facts and make informed decisions. And I say this is a great example of our failed education system. Everything the democrats and republicans have done over the last fifty years or more has led us into the current political mire we have attained. Yet we see them as the only feasible choice. We make no effort to find something better. And I have made this argument before, not in this context, but before so I won't spend too much time on the idea that it is time to find new ideas. We do need them and every now and then I try to write some ideas down to give a different perspective on how to deal with our problems. Our economic quagmire is another example of decades of bad policies run amok.

And maybe I spend too much time on CNN, Yahoo, etc reading all the posts to the different stories out there, but the posts are starting to scare me. First there is the hate being posted on a daily basis. Much of it is towards our current president. Fine if you don't want him as president vote for the other guy. What I fear is this hate emboldening people to take action. I was reading an article about a threat from the infamous terrorist organization, not named on purpose, and there were so many posts basically accusing the president of virtual treason. Wild accusations that just made no sense. Yet here they were over and over again. Is it insane to think these people are dangerous? Am I paranoid ( a mental illness or insanity?) that action could take place by these people or because of these people. It amazes me that there is so much. I would think this isn't the norm, but once it grows to a certain point does it become the norm? And that is one reason I started this whole post. Where do we keep a handle on what we consider the norm and prevent these people ( and is it insanity or worse) from developing into a norm?

If you have a Democracy and allow free speech, you will get some extremist thinking, we have to accept it to a degree. Is this speech though acceptable? For some obviously. What happens when one extreme group uses another to accomplish their goals? Could this be happening now? How do we define what is acceptable and what is dangerous, or where does it become dangerous? Back to my general arguments, we accept the democrats and republicans, but both are diverging away from the center. Especially the Republican leadership. Most Americans are centrist to moderately conservative, yet we don't stop this leadership take over of one of our parties. Is this insane? Why can't we not move back to the center ( in reality, and yes I admit I don't trust Romney's so called move to the center as his real intention as president). What about the Democrats taking a social policy that is extremely left of the center. And again no expectation of change by the majority of the country. You cannot keep expecting new results without changing what you are doing. Oops got off too much on this aside again.

Anyway where does all the hate discussed above lead us. This worries me. Then I read this post on Yahoo from the article I mentioned about the threat:

"If anyone hasn't realized that Revelations is speaking of this issue and what is coming, look again. 7 heads are 7 leaders of 10 nations of these people. Anyone who doesn't see this in Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan,Afghanistan, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Turkey and all the breakways Russian republics known as "stans" needs to wake up. Fortunately, these subhumans don't win in the end. Let the hate begin."

quoted exactly as written. Again what is the definition of insanity? First just the fact that he is trying to paraphrase something from the Bible and ends the statement with the phrase "let the hate begin" is what, insane?. Just the fact that someone is that off base alone scares me. And then there is the potential for so many misapplied concepts from the Bible to be used by this person or others. Revelation is hard enough to understand without someone going to town with a statement like the above. Or can I say what does it all mean and leave it alone? Obviously I cannot. And I don't know if this is a one off situation or does this person reflect a growing religious right's true attitude. And to the situation of the growing religious right in our country, wasn't Jesus thumping the scrolls at the same type of people thumping the bible at us nowadays?

And what is the norm nowadays?

So if a person believes in a norm that most people don't see and think that this should be the norm, what does that mean? Whose norm is correct? And who determines what is a better norm? Or if I believe that we can make changes, good ideas are out there, but cannot get anyone to listen, how big is my insanity?


Much to do about nothing or are you ready to think. Then some finallys ( I always have finallys)

First to all the people in the Northeast I hope you are prepared. One heck of an insane storm coming your way. (bad pun intended). Truly though take care, take shelter, evacuate, whatever you need to do to come out on the other side. I think most "normal" people are praying for you safety.

And coming from Dallas, you know where conspiracy theories abound, does anyone get the problem in our country. It seems the uneducated heathen who have never read Mein Kampf seem destined to bring that problem to our country. Remember it starts with bullying, hatred, and finding a scapegoat for our problems. Goes back to my statement where one extremist group uses another to achieve their goals. I really don't want that insanity for our country or can we save the constitution and common sense by being aware of who we are and how great we can be as a country by just making the small efforts needed to find the right solutions.

Wonderful fall day in Dallas, TX