Looking around at the world today, events in the news, and so forth, a person might wonder, “Has the world gone crazy?”
Well, from my point of view, I would say there is good and bad. On a positive note, the world will never consider itself insane– the majority of people will always accept their own perspective(s) as being real and legitimate. I believe that mental illness will continue to be perceived as a peripheral phenomenon– that schizophrenics, for example, will be seen as sick or maladjusted, at least to some degree. Reality is somewhat democratic. It will be defined by what most people suggest, and therefore what most suggest will be construed as being healthy.
On the other hand, the bad– modernity, with its accelerating pace, frightening feedback loops and other phenomena, may indeed be stressful and challenging enough that it is causing “normal” people to increasingly have symptoms of mental illness. At this point, it seems that there are more people in therapy than out, and it is suggested that anti-depressants and related medications are so prevalent that they have started to pollute our drinking water. Stress is a killer, and few are exempt from it– those who are seem not to grasp things.
So, paradoxically, the world is not going crazy. But it seems like a lot of the people in it are beginning to act crazy themselves.
