There's Reason in This Madness

That's exactly right. Madness always has a reason, and by reason I don't mean the cause, as in the mere thing that compelled someone to go mad. As in, "So I heard Richard moved to the Bahamas to avoid the FBI and fraudulent claims," and then "Oh so that's the

reason why." Nor do I mean to say madness is reasonable; it certainly is not because it's harmful to the madman and everyone else who has to put up with it. Richard was not being very reasonable when he moved to the Bahamas. He should have gone to Serbia.

Reason, the sense being used in the title, refers to calculation, observation, and logic. The very worst madness has all three. It's the kind of madness that is so plausible it has an intellectual foundation. It isn't based on petty fears or insecurities; it is one plus one equals two. This is why all (truly) mad people are incredulous to learn they are mad. Perhaps I'm mad. But that's a slippery slope. The point is the most menacing kind of madness is the kind that can't be refuted. It's as obvious to the mad man as basic sums.

Go to a psychiatric ward and observe the queer behavior. What's that guy doing behind the poll? Right there, behind the foundation poll. He's hiding behind it as if he's unseen. What's the problem? Oh, that one thinks he's invisible behind the poll because I walked by without noticing him there one day. It's rather silly. Look at him peering at us secretly as if he can't be seen. Yes, we've all tried proving to him that we can see him but he says that's exactly what he expected. He says that he hasn't believed in the poll hard enough. That the poll made him invisible once and will again, but he must believe in it with all his heart. I wouldn't wave if I were you. If he knows you can see him he'll become extremely depressed. We all ignore him now to keep him happy.

That poor fellow has a case of madness based on observation alone. He observed a phenomenon once and has clung to it as definitive ever since. Why? There's a psychological root. Perhaps he's obsessed with invisibility, hiding from his physicality or the scrutiny of others. It makes him feel better that's for sure. The above example is far from being the worst. It has one aspect of reasoning. This man can be freed from his madness with a little logic. If we all leave the room, so will this man. The pole is no longer powerful if no one is in there to hide from. He must leave the pole for the room we're all in. If he find's another pole, we leave again until he realizes it's the not the pole that he wants but the people. He realizes he depends on these people, but for the wrong reason. He depends on these people in order to hide from them. They must exist in order for him to hide and be happy. How odd and illogical. Why not just be with the people instead? His belief in the pole is only reinforced if we ignore him. Ignoring madness in others certainly does not cure it.

What about the madman who uses logic but no observation? The modern day Nietzsche? The two young men from Hitchcock's

Rope? Raskolnikov in

Crime and Punishment? They dwell on the abstract and impersonal. They are inhuman. They believe that they're actually being unselfish for walking past the beggar with no coat in frigid winter. It's their only coat, so why give it to a poor fool who'll no doubt ruin it or die in a few days? It's better for humanity if they keep their only coat. They've got greater expectations and potential than the beggar. Is this not warped? If you possess such promise, isn't it logical to give the beggar your coat now? After all, you're promising nature will get you a new one soon enough. But, this is logic against logic. They will say they need this coat in order to get a new coat and as soon as they do they'll give the old one to another beggar. This one will die, sure, but there's always another. The logical loops are infinite. Humanity - compassion - is the only thing stopping the loop. You give

this beggar you're coat because he's real. He's the now. He's not the abstract other beggar you will surely eventually help.

There's one madman left; the one with all the reasoning. He's me. He's you. You've got the whole world figured out. You're living on assumptions about how other people think and feel. Perhaps you're not. Perhaps that previous sentence is an assumption of my own. Perhaps you're beyond the superficiality of holding any one idea or belief as always true. Nothing is always true. Or is it? I can't be certain what you think. I'd like to think you think what I think; that we've thought and believed something for the same reason.