IS INSANITY CONTAGIOUS?

The older I get, the more I am convinced that some things just cannot be explained in simple terms. But I am certain of this one fact. There are crazies living among us. Some of them travel through life without any problems and some even seek and receive help. Some, however, succumb to the voices they claim to hear, and act on those impulses.

You could say that they get marching orders from voices in their heads. In just the recent past we have seen mass murder committed by otherwise normal looking and sounding people. The clown in Las Vegas was a successful millionaire. The school shooter in Florida was an obvious wing nut. This idiot just arrested as the mail bomber is a former male stripper with a long rap sheet of crimes and now we have a synagogue killer with no discernible criminal past. All of these killers seem to want attention which they feel has been denied them. They do all have one thing in common however. They are all evil to the core. They are pathetic examples of humanity at its worst.

Were they all crazy? Probably. Were they all so crazy that they should have been institutionalized? Probably, but who knows? You probably know someone today who is “iffy.” You surely have seen people on the street talking to the trees or otherwise demonstrating craziness. What should be done with those people?

Some folks have obvious deficiencies which causes them and all around them problems. Some of these deficiencies are inborn and some are created by the use and abuse of alcohol and drugs. Have you ever seen an individual who has sniffed glue to the point of intoxication? Many of these folks are incapable of living a normal life and caring for themselves. Consider street level opiates and fentanyl. Some of the abusers just kill themselves while some kill others. Years ago we had asylums. Today we put crazies in prison.

Down through history we have seen craziness. I am convinced that craziness is contagious. Consider David Koresh in Waco, or Jim Jones in Guyana. These clowns were obviously insane but they also infected a large number of followers. Mass suicides and murders ensued. We have seen politically motivated murderers like the radical Muslim, Omar Mateen, who killed all those people in the Orlando nightclub. How about brilliant geniuses like Ted Kaczynski? He was a Harvard grad as a teenager and a math professor. But he was no doubt a complete whack job who will die locked up in a cage. There was Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and many others whose charisma and glib oratory put them in positions of absolute power. They used that power to murder millions. We also have morons like Kim Jong-un who ascended to power because they were born into it. They’re still crazy and murderous.

I started this piece with the comment that some things just defy understanding. Lightning strikes an unsuspecting kid on a baseball field. A tree falls on a house and kills a sleeping child. Sometimes you just have to believe that God has called someone home.

Hateful political rhetoric stirs up people. Some more than others. No one has the franchise on ugly political rhetoric. But, the more it is spewed, the more problems it will cause. The current blame game going on because of the latest nutjobs doing their craziness isn’t doing anybody any good. In fact it may well have the reverse effect.

Here’s an idea. How about we just all cool it and take a breath. How about we see craziness for what it is and punish evil for what it is. We are fortunate to live in the greatest country on earth and we have enough problems to deal with without creating more.

Ron Scarbro