If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up.
-Hunter S. Thompson
Some people would like to argue that living a repetitively normal life of complete complacency is satisfying, well I'm here to say why, perhaps, they are wrong. Some of the most influential people of all time were lunatics, for better or for worse.
"Now snort this upside down! Yes.... yes, like that."
Just cause they are insane doesn't mean you need to take all of their advice. Hunter S. Thompson lived the definition of extreme, but this guy also did himself in near the end. I wasn't a dear friend of Thompson, but I can tell he wasn't completely joyful while he was still kicking. Drowning yourself in drugs doesn't always seem like a good way of projecting all the happiness you have boxed up inside. Generations have different ideas of "lunacy". Thompson may have been a lunatic in his time, but now, after reflecting on his ideas, is almost worshiped by anarchists and commune hippies.
What would categorize a crazy person today? Do you think you should be a little bit crazy in life? Perhaps when you look at the bigger picture at the end of your days, do you want to be viewed as boring...
I strongly believe a little insanity is healthy, and I think what characterizes it is doing something that breaks free of social expectations. When I see someone do something rather outrageous and having a great time doing so I'm a little jealous and I have to smile and think "what a nut, man i'd like to try that." In all seriousness why look back and think of all the things we never got around to? This isn't to say live on impulse and recklessly, but to have a healthy appetite for insanity that allows you to break out of yourself and society now and then.
ReplyDeleteI may not be down with crazy as a mental illness; send none of that my way, but I do believe in the Kerouac style ideals of "madness". Madness as a symbol of freedom from social confinement and living for experiences and moments that you personally value rather than forced onto a conveyor line that society mandates is what's appropriate and what you should work towards.
ReplyDeleteMaybe,to be content, you need a fair share mediocrity and madness (Kerouac style).
ReplyDeleteThought-provoking post. Several books on the AP reading list (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Catch-22 come to mind) deal with the theme of insanity as a social construction, i.e., when is insanity a function of mental illness as opposed to a function of deviating from the (questionably sane) norm?
ReplyDeleteIt's also interesting to consider the various meanings and connotations of madness, as in the following from Kerouac:
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!”
I think the most depressed people are the ones who sit and watch life like they watch the ocean. They become accustomed to the waves and not what lies beneath them. Sure, the glassy blue ocean is beautiful, but there is an unbelieveable amount of undiscovered country ready to be explored underneath.
ReplyDeleteThis man who watches the ocean is sane, but once he starts chasing the flooded Atlantis, society will call him crazy and he will go back to watching the waves. The myths of the deep blue abyss will just lay dormant at the back of his mind as he slowly withers away and his children take his spot.
I feel like this is how people might feel about exploring the world, they feel they will be beaten down by their own peers if they venture in to deep.