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| Socrates accepts the poison Image from masshumanities |
Today
[10 Oct] is the world mental health day. Who is mentally healthy and who is
not? It’s not very easy to determine anyone’s sanity. Men and women who were
considered insane by significant numbers of people eventually turned out to be
geniuses or saints or something similarly eminent. Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts
and views were quite insane by the world’s normal standards. Joan of Arc was
considered an insane woman and bunt at the stake for her alleged collusion with
the devil before being canonised as a saint by the same Church that burnt her
as a witch.
Geniuses
and saints are insane by the world’s average standards.
Psychologist-philosopher William James wrote candidly that religious experiences
can have “morbid origins” in brain pathology. Religious experiences are often
irrational but nevertheless are largely positive by their outcomes. Geniuses are
initially perceived by people as lunatics.
A
genius sees reality differently from the average person. A genius sees farther
and probes deeper. He has a different set of ethical valuations and has the ‘insane’
energy and guts to pursue his valuations even if the whole world stands opposed
to him.
Socrates
was killed by people who regarded themselves as sane. Socrates was insane by
their standards. He corrupted the youth of Athens, according to them. What he
actually did was to expose the stupidities of the common people so that his
disciples would live saner lives. Superior minds like Socrates usually fail to
understand the fury roused by their exposures of the stupidities of the people
who run the social, political and religious systems. Every time Socrates opened
his mouth, these eminent leaders of the systems were shown up as idiots. The
philosopher probably never understood that. It is most likely that Socrates
drank the hemlock without knowing exactly what his offence was: that he was
saner than the majority.
Napoleon
was a great ruler. When he was asked how the world would take his death, he
said it would heave a sigh of relief. Superior minds arouse the envy of the
mediocre ones by wounding the latter’s vanity. Not only that: the superiority
frightens them. So the death of the superior mind is a relief to the common
man.
The
superiority of ordinary leaders like our common politicians is founded on their
position, on the power resting in that position. People may fear that power
since it can be dangerous. But such fear is limited. The fear roused by great
minds is different. That fear makes the common man feel too small, too
insignificant. People like Jesus aroused this fear. Jesus’ demand for love was
too inhuman. Too insane for the ordinary soul. Hence Jesus deserved the cruellest
punishment. The sanest person was killed in the cruellest way possible.
Sanity
continues to be crucified to this day. The methods are different, that’s all.
Very well thought piece. A sane one.
ReplyDeleteWell said!
ReplyDeleteGlad you visited after a long time.
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