Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Insanity

Sanity is not statistical - George Orwell in 1984

According to the Oxford Advanced Learning's Dictionary, insanity is defined as:

the state of being seriously mentally ill and unable to live in normal society

The key word in the definition is "normal". If you are considered normal by the society, you will not be then insane. In other words, insanity arises when one does not accept the standards of the society. Thus a person that think the present government is trying to create a false memory for the citizens by making synthetic sun, sky and everything to deceive us will be considered to be insane because what he said is not what people in society will believe. Socrates was charged for corrupting the young and was put to death because he questioned the "normal" standard of the society. Jesus was crucified because he was teaching what the Jewish society at the time did not believe.

Insanity also arises when you think that 1 + 1 = 2 but people tell you it's 3. Who is insane? You or the people?