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Aswad -> RE: So Why Are All The Genius's Insane? (6/3/2007 7:58:29 PM)
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ORIGINAL: Termyn8or
Now consider : Ignorance is bliss. Just think of the flipside of that. Really, that is what it is. The more I know the more I am ready to go out in a blaze of glory. But that is not insanity, not yet.
~nod~
Fortunately, nephandi showed me there's enough good out there to be worth holding on to.
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The insanity comes because there is no clear target, nobody to hit to make things better, in fact anything that could be done would be counterproductive.
Exactly.
This pretty much defines one of the causes of depression: when there's nothing to do to make things better, and stuff really sucks.
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That is the worst kind of stress, things that have no solution. The genius personality seeks always to solve problems, that is how they get to be a genius. A certain amount of emotional detachment must occur for the genius to maintain some semblence of sanity, and that is precisely where the insanity comes in.
I'm not a genious, at least by my own reckoning. 99th percentile or thereabouts. But I do have a mind that is geared toward solving problems and operating rationally. And I can certainly say that such a combination necessitates some mental athletics to manage to find a balance that computes without things breaking down. Detachment is one of the common ways of "solving" the problem, but it really just makes some things worse.
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Why are monsters hailed as heroes ? Because they do drastic things. Hitler was a hero to the German People in the 1930s because he did drastic things. He told the French to stick it up their ass and then invaded them. When you need a wheelbarrel full of money to buy a postage stamp, perhaps it is time for drastic action. Those who we would typically call sane will not do such things.
Indeed. And Germany might in fact be better off for it. The Jews probably are, all in all, since they got a country and general acceptance from it. Democracy was established as a gold standard of government in contrast to it. Ethical standards of medical research followed from it. There's no denying the horrors of WW2, but some good came of it as well, perhaps more good than from most other wards.
As a less controversial example, Vlad Tepeş was a national hero, too. Despite his arguably horrific treatment of a lot of people. "Dracula" was banned until recently for defiling a national hero.
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Perhaps the founding Fathers of this country were insane. What 'sane' people tell you to do is vote and change comes from within. But they are not genius caliber. Smart people know better, that we need better candidates.
The Founding Fathers brought on untold bloodshed for something a bare third of their country wanted. Yet history remembers them fondly, and quite possibly rightly so. The normal thing to do is to let things go on as they do. Yet, sometimes, drastic changes are neccessary. Sometimes, these cannot come about peacefully. Other times, they can, but in a timeframe that will entail a greater injustice. Either way, history is written by those who "win", and one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist. By analogy, one man's visionary is another man's brutal dictatorial monster.
I doubt many people who have gotten to power, and have abused it, did so without there being something more to them than some fondness for mayhem. Even Hitler had his good sides, according to some who knew him, and he thought he was doing the right thing. Some have suggested, by the way, that he was predominantly vegan. When we think back, though, we'd prefer not to picture him playing with the kids and such; it's a lot easier to have a "clear" picture in our heads if we stick to him screaming to the sheep ... err ... people, and ordering lots of people killed. It'd be entirely superfluous to our mental image of him to recall one of the architects of the "euthanasia" programme, a real psycho, being upset about how Hitler insisted that he devise a humane way to do it, rather than letting him do what he wanted to do.
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I don't go postal (notice how that term is unique to the US) because of two reasons.
Good reasons. I think loss of the second, or seeing a possible solution to the first (albeit one people wouldn't like) is probably how a lot of people end up doing such things. In some cases, it might actually improve things. I remember when people in a place I worked got asked to pool money for a hit on the boss. I'm still wondering whether the pool would have been big enough if I had added my contribution (I didn't), and whether that would have been for the better, given the enormous amounts of crap he's the root cause of (he was a noticable factor in local police brutality statistics, and I would "credit" him with one instance of infanticide).
My ethics did not allow me to contribute, but I'm not sure how I feel about it, at all.
And, by the way, "postal" is not unique to the US. I've heard it many times.
We used it more often than usual in that department, though; including, solid, formerly "sane" people, married, middle-aged, kids, good reputation, U.N. contacts, job offers elsewhere, etc. Fortunately, nobody did go postal. That's a minor miracle in itself. We did have screaming contests, though. Not the "arguing" kind, but the kind where we'd go to some secluded location together and just scream our lungs out until our voices wouldn't come anymore. Glad I don't work there anymore. And glad we managed to keep the boat afloat for everyone else until the board got rid of the head honcho and started fixing things like we'd suggested.
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And that is why I am not afraid to die. It would be a welcome rest. I am also curious about what is on the other side, if anything, but when the simple fact that it will be over becomes enticing, watch out.
If I didn't have my nephandi, I'd second that sentiment.
Still not afraid to die, though I worry what would happen to her if I did. ~knocks on wood~
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And I can point out the similarity between insanity and genius. I think I have.
Fairly well. There are some subtleties you're not covering, but I frankly think they'd be lost on most of those who don't know them already. And shot down more than it's worth posting them.
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Serial killers operate for years before getting caught, they can't do this if they are stupid.
Actually, having examined some cases, I think it's more a case of there being a lot of leeway for a wolf in a society of sheep, where the infrastructure is built to catch the black sheep, not the wolves. Having seen some of the ways some of these have been caught, the mile-wide trail of evidence they leave behind, and so forth, I think it's very likely that the police assessments are right that, in many cases, these people are anything but geniouses.
If you wanted to kill people, there's a million ways you could get away with it, provided you have the self-control required to stick to the plan, the patience not to act on impulse and the intelligence to think it through.
Many times, I've been wondering just how many people out there aren't being caught. Kind of scary.
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I need intoxicants simply to slow down.
Phenobarbital 0.5mg/kg BID works wonders. Helps with sleep, too. Some may end up developing a tolerance to it, though, so watch out for that. Better than alcohol, though, in many ways, and not nearly as unpleasant for the same amount of sedation; you don't get as dulled down as from the alcohol, for instance.
I don't like either, though. Except the sleep improvement; that's nice.
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Also intoxicants allow one to think and act like normal people for a time.
To some extent; mostly, it makes it easier to go with the flow and not give a damn. And the bit about "screw tomorrow", as you said, kind of falls under that heading.
I don't appreciate that state, though.
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The problem comes when you start to really care. Live my hell for a day and I bet you wind up in a straitjacket. And I don't mean playtime.
Caring is where the problem is at, yeah.
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