The Sanity of Insanity

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.