There are two meanings of the word “mad.” It could mean crazy or it could mean angry. It seems that we are going through both variations.
We can understand why people are mad in the Middle East and North Africa. We have seen the people in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Gaza and Egypt again rise up and riot in the streets. People screaming, cursing, shouting - mad. These people have been oppressed by their rulers for decades and have finally had enough. The problem in most of these cases is that there are so many rival factions and they are all mad. A cartoon picture that offends them will cause riots with many injured and killed. If a holy book is damaged this too will cause vicious riots. These people are mad. The region has groups like Al Qaeda, Taliban, Houthi, Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS (or ISIL or IS or soon ISN’T) terrorizing the people and wanting a world where women are completely subjugated, treated worse than dogs which they are not allowed to have because the dogs are deemed too unclean.
In sub Sahara Africa, populations are terrorized by groups like Boko Harem and Al-Shabaab, groups that no doubt look up to their fellow monsters to the north. The people are faced with poverty, violence, corruption and disease. It’s enough to drive a people mad.
We see it in the former communist countries where corruption is rampant and freedom is limited. We can understand what would drive these people mad as they are in the Ukraine and soon will be elsewhere in Eastern Europe as the former/ future Evil Empire tries to gain a foothold in the world. Some experts on the region that was, for a terrible while, known as the USSR, say that the only thing that keeps these people unified at all is the massive corruption. No wonder the people are mad and are going mad as well.
We see the tremendous poverty, corruption and violence in Latin America from Mexico to Haiti to Colombia and Argentina. We can understand why many of their people are mad. This region suffers a 29% poverty rate with 165 million people living on less than $1,000 a year. The people suffer at the hands of violent drug dealers and corrupt police officers. Non-whites, though in the majority, and women are treated like second or third class citizens.
But why are Americans mad? We see the signs everywhere.
After a playoff football game, the defensive player who was able to block a pass that could have won the game, was interviewed. He had been able to go to one of the best colleges in the country on a football scholarship. He was earning millions of dollars a year, and had just saved his team’s victory. He was furious. He was yelling and cursing and looking like a very angry and crazy man. Why was he so mad?
A young high school dropout and a hero wannabe, got a federal job under false premises, broke contractual agreements and vows of confidentiality to expose a government program that he felt might be wrong. His leaks had the potential of damaging national security. But instead of being universally vilified as a narcissistic traitor, some took up his cause claiming that their privacy had been somehow violated. Some were mad at the government that was trying to protect them from terrorist threats and took the traitor’s side. Are they crazy or just mad?
A young high school football player is asked about his presence in a gated and secured housing complex. He reacts violently and tries to kill the community volunteer asking the question. The volunteer kills his violent assailant in self defense. We want justice for the dead assailant. Even after a jury including six mothers found the shooter innocent and after the U.S. Attorney General reviewed every aspect of the case hoping for a federal conviction also ruled the killing self defense, we want the volunteer to suffer, forever. We are mad as hell. Are we mad?
An old, senile, rich and jealous man is taped in the privacy of his home saying bad things about a group of his girlfriend’s friends. We are offended, not that his privacy actually was violated, but that he could have said anything bad about any group of people. We wanted him banned from the team that he owned and forced him to sell it. He got us mad.
This madness has spread to show solidarity for an oppressed people and all oppressed people. Protect the underdog against the mean top dogs of the world symbolized by the police. Riot and display disobedience and lawlessness to show compassion for the underprivileged.
But now we have a left wing politician with presidential hopes coming out against the mean top 1%. He is upset that people in the top 1% have a lot more money and assets than do other 99% of the population. He believes that if one person owns five homes and 10 cars while another rents an apartment and takes public transportation, that the latter is a victim of the former and should be entitled to have almost as much capital.
What he fails to see is that capital does not make people happy in proportion to its size. A billionaire is not any more likely to be happy than is a person who make $80,000 a year and owns no capital asset like a home or business enterprise. Has he gone mad or is just mad that he does not own more?
We are now seeing madness on our college campuses. Students are protesting and demanding that professors and administrators be fired for not doing more to protect the delicate sensibilities of their minority students. Did some students wear the wrong Halloween costumes? Did a professor write an email that did not show enough empathy for the offended underdogs? Did the former president of the university and past liberal President of the United States have the wrong idea about a certain group of people more than 100 years ago? His name should be removed from wherever it is on campus. Did an invited speaker say anything that could offend any interest group? He should be booed if he is allowed to speak at all. Have our college campuses become centers for mob madness instead of havens for higher learning?
And what should we do about all this madness?
As the Jefferson Airplane advised Alice in “White Rabbit,” “keep your head!” and use it.
We can understand why people are mad in the Middle East and North Africa. We have seen the people in Tunisia, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Syria, Gaza and Egypt again rise up and riot in the streets. People screaming, cursing, shouting - mad. These people have been oppressed by their rulers for decades and have finally had enough. The problem in most of these cases is that there are so many rival factions and they are all mad. A cartoon picture that offends them will cause riots with many injured and killed. If a holy book is damaged this too will cause vicious riots. These people are mad. The region has groups like Al Qaeda, Taliban, Houthi, Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS (or ISIL or IS or soon ISN’T) terrorizing the people and wanting a world where women are completely subjugated, treated worse than dogs which they are not allowed to have because the dogs are deemed too unclean.
In sub Sahara Africa, populations are terrorized by groups like Boko Harem and Al-Shabaab, groups that no doubt look up to their fellow monsters to the north. The people are faced with poverty, violence, corruption and disease. It’s enough to drive a people mad.
We see it in the former communist countries where corruption is rampant and freedom is limited. We can understand what would drive these people mad as they are in the Ukraine and soon will be elsewhere in Eastern Europe as the former/ future Evil Empire tries to gain a foothold in the world. Some experts on the region that was, for a terrible while, known as the USSR, say that the only thing that keeps these people unified at all is the massive corruption. No wonder the people are mad and are going mad as well.
We see the tremendous poverty, corruption and violence in Latin America from Mexico to Haiti to Colombia and Argentina. We can understand why many of their people are mad. This region suffers a 29% poverty rate with 165 million people living on less than $1,000 a year. The people suffer at the hands of violent drug dealers and corrupt police officers. Non-whites, though in the majority, and women are treated like second or third class citizens.
But why are Americans mad? We see the signs everywhere.
After a playoff football game, the defensive player who was able to block a pass that could have won the game, was interviewed. He had been able to go to one of the best colleges in the country on a football scholarship. He was earning millions of dollars a year, and had just saved his team’s victory. He was furious. He was yelling and cursing and looking like a very angry and crazy man. Why was he so mad?
A young high school dropout and a hero wannabe, got a federal job under false premises, broke contractual agreements and vows of confidentiality to expose a government program that he felt might be wrong. His leaks had the potential of damaging national security. But instead of being universally vilified as a narcissistic traitor, some took up his cause claiming that their privacy had been somehow violated. Some were mad at the government that was trying to protect them from terrorist threats and took the traitor’s side. Are they crazy or just mad?
A young high school football player is asked about his presence in a gated and secured housing complex. He reacts violently and tries to kill the community volunteer asking the question. The volunteer kills his violent assailant in self defense. We want justice for the dead assailant. Even after a jury including six mothers found the shooter innocent and after the U.S. Attorney General reviewed every aspect of the case hoping for a federal conviction also ruled the killing self defense, we want the volunteer to suffer, forever. We are mad as hell. Are we mad?
An old, senile, rich and jealous man is taped in the privacy of his home saying bad things about a group of his girlfriend’s friends. We are offended, not that his privacy actually was violated, but that he could have said anything bad about any group of people. We wanted him banned from the team that he owned and forced him to sell it. He got us mad.
This madness has spread to show solidarity for an oppressed people and all oppressed people. Protect the underdog against the mean top dogs of the world symbolized by the police. Riot and display disobedience and lawlessness to show compassion for the underprivileged.
But now we have a left wing politician with presidential hopes coming out against the mean top 1%. He is upset that people in the top 1% have a lot more money and assets than do other 99% of the population. He believes that if one person owns five homes and 10 cars while another rents an apartment and takes public transportation, that the latter is a victim of the former and should be entitled to have almost as much capital.
What he fails to see is that capital does not make people happy in proportion to its size. A billionaire is not any more likely to be happy than is a person who make $80,000 a year and owns no capital asset like a home or business enterprise. Has he gone mad or is just mad that he does not own more?
We are now seeing madness on our college campuses. Students are protesting and demanding that professors and administrators be fired for not doing more to protect the delicate sensibilities of their minority students. Did some students wear the wrong Halloween costumes? Did a professor write an email that did not show enough empathy for the offended underdogs? Did the former president of the university and past liberal President of the United States have the wrong idea about a certain group of people more than 100 years ago? His name should be removed from wherever it is on campus. Did an invited speaker say anything that could offend any interest group? He should be booed if he is allowed to speak at all. Have our college campuses become centers for mob madness instead of havens for higher learning?
And what should we do about all this madness?
As the Jefferson Airplane advised Alice in “White Rabbit,” “keep your head!” and use it.
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