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Statistics: Posted by Scepcop — 06 Oct 2010, 22:26
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Most people assume that:
1) The majority of people are right, normal, sane, friendly and sociable.
2) Misfits and people who don't follow the herd are crazy, insane and weird. They are the problem and to blame for any incompatibility with others.
However, many great thinkers and intellectuals with deep insight, from ages ago to recent times, have seen through this fallacy, and realized that the reverse was true. Here are some quotes from them:
“The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.” - Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
"The men the American public admire most extravagantly are the most daring liars; the men they detest most violently are those who try to tell them the truth." - H. L. Mencken
“Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.” - Gandhi
"Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." - Frederich Nietzsche
"Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools, and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion." - Thornton Wilder
"Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong." — Oscar Wilde
"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Frederich Nietzsche
"Men have been taught that it is a virtue to agree with others. But the creator is the man who disagrees. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to swim with the current. But the creator is the man who goes against the current. Men have been taught that it is a virtue to stand together. But the creator is the man who stands alone." - Ayn Rand
"Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue..." - Billy Joel, in his hit song "Honesty"
"The sick individual finds himself at home with all other similarly sick individuals. The whole culture is geared to this kind of pathology. The result is that the average individual does not experience the separateness and isolation the fully schizophrenic person feels. He feels at ease among those who suffer from the same deformation; in fact, it is the fully sane person who feels isolated in the insane society — and he may suffer so much from the incapacity to communicate that it is he who may become psychotic." - Eric Fromm (The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness)
This parable illustrates the truth that Fromm described very well:
"The parable of the poisoned well
There was once a wise king who ruled over a vast city. He was feared for his might and loved for his wisdom. Now in the heart of the city, there was a well whose waters were pure and crystalline from which the king and all the inhabitants drank. When all were asleep, an enemy entered the city and poured seven drops of a strange liquid into the well. And he said that henceforth all who drink this water shall become mad.
All the people drank of the water, but not the king. And the people began to say, "The king is mad and has lost his reason. Look how strangely he behaves. We cannot be ruled by a madman, so he must be dethroned."
The king grew very fearful, for his subjects were preparing to rise against him. So one evening, he ordered a golden goblet to be filled from the well, and he drank deeply. The next day, there was great rejoicing among the people, for their beloved king had finally regained his reason."
Thus it is sad and no wonder that we live in an upside down world, as Michael Ellner describes in this profound statement:
"Just look at us. Everything is backwards. Everything is upside down. Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the major media destroy information, and religion destroys spirituality."
Statistics: Posted by Scepcop — 06 Oct 2010, 22:09
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Since my melt down in 03 I have major problems with being around groups of people. While part of it due to the Agoraphobia and other psychological issues (some of which you’ve noted in your list), a lot of it comes from being sick and tired of the games that are played…
Yeah but I find that loners tend to be in Western cultures cause there is too much fakeness and political correctness required in getting along with groups in Western cultures.
In most countries, you just act as you are, and that's that. So there are less hermits that feel the need to withdraw into something more authentic.
… I refuse to be “Politically Correct” simply because it’s horse pucky and a bigger LIE that the veneer of politeness already extant in such groupings; depending of the situation you’ll find more gossiping, back-stabbing and under-mining in such environs… especially when it’s part of some kind of association or club.
The other thing that I detest is being invited to a function because people know of my background as both, a Reader and Performer and believe that I’ll do something for free since I’m there… boy, do they ever get resentful when I ask for a check first; they seem to forget that it’s my VOCATION and not silliness I do for children.
In those other world cultures that you hint at, the “hermits” are frequently the local holy people who tend to remove themselves from society as they begin to recognize their own sensitivity to things; even in the westernized world you will find spiritually oriented people and psychics moving further outside the larger communities and even into some seriously “rural” areas so they can be with nature/God instead of the ingrates in town that don’t understand nor do they have the desire to.
Arouet, I don’t know about where you live but in the U.S. High School pettiness seems a constant with the past two, maybe three generations. One side of it comes from what pop psychologist called the “Peter Pan Syndrome” some years back; our unwillingness to “act our age” and thus, clinging to our youth but more specifically, the delusion that we are still the head cheer leader or star jock of one of the school sports teams…
Statistics: Posted by Craig Browning — 05 Oct 2010, 23:34
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