One of the definitions of sanity is the ability to tell real from unreal. Soon we'll need a new definition.
Alvin Toffler
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allan Poe
Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.
John Russell
Sanity is madness put to good use.
George Santayana
I know the topic might be a bit heavy but who is to say we can't handle it? It's all about our brains...
Do you agree with the quotes I chose and posted above? Which ones? Why? What does it really mean to be sane? Do geniuses are just mentally ill people whith outrageous ideas which somehow happen to turn right? Do you need to/must be sane to write good books? Why so many people nowadays, although officially completely sane, according to A.Toffler have serious problems with telling the real from unreal?
I am probably not the best person to ask. I suspect I am one of the crazy people. :-D
ReplyDeleteWriting this blog and presenting such a topic I am perhaps also not one of the sanest people around so welcome to the club.
ReplyDeleteI did start writing a comment, then it disappeared into the ether, so I'll try again (not having much luck with computers this morning, spent nearly an hour trying to get online on the main computer, before giving up and resorting to the laptop - resisted temptation to throw the hard drive out of the window - would that make me slightly insane? Or insane for trying to reboot the computer several times to get the damned thing to behave?)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, sanity/insanity is on a sliding scale - I doubt you'd find many people who are 100% sane 100% of the time - since our brains are controlled by chemicals, that's really not surprising.
Madness is more interesting? Hmmm, depends on the form it takes. We've all had temporary moments of insanity/not fully sane, when we do/say things we wouldn't do 'normally', many of which we really regret. But acting like that permanently? I don't think interesting is the right word.
Completely sane but being unable to tell reality from unreality - again, what form does this take? Religion? Astrology? Little Green Men from spaceships? Whichever conspiracy theories are currently doing the rounds? Is there an Absolute Reality? Or is it the construct of a bilion brains, all interpreting it slightly differently? Reality is what your own brain tells you is real - it's constantly changing, depending partly on new information received and partly on the priorities of the moment. You are at the mercy of your brain, a hostage to whatever spin it puts on a situation - which is why it's always good to get the opinion of other people, preferably ones who might see things differently.
Maybe what more people call interesting isn't madness but more accurately called eccentricity.
ReplyDelete"Is there an Absolute Reality? Or is it the construct of a bilion brains, all interpreting it slightly differently? Reality is what your own brain tells you is real - it's constantly changing, depending partly on new information received and partly on the priorities of the moment."
ReplyDeleteThat was beautiful and very true. I don't think we will ever be able to tell what part of the existing world is really as we see/experience it and what part is simply the figment of our imagination or an illusion created by our senses. Perhaps those "insane" people are just able to perceive more than the normal crowd? Perhaps they simply perceive it differently?
I remember those scenes from "Beautiful Mind" when the leading character IMAGINED he had a friend, and a collaborator but all these personalities existed just in his brain.