Maybe I'm the crazy one, but it really seems like there are more seriously crazy people in the world than ever before. I'm talking complete fruitloops here.
Or were there always lots of nutballs in the world, but the immediacy of the Internet has made them much more visible?
When I was a kid — in the 1970s — mental health was definitely not as common a topic of conversation as it is today, and "crazy people" were mostly spoken about in whispers and hushed tones, in private situations.
I did have a cousin who was in an institution for several years following some kind of psychotic break, but that was the extent of it. But we never talked about it... just like we never talked about my mother's frequent use of tranquilizers.
What definitely did not seem to exist were people wandering around in mental states that clearly suggested they were living in some kind of alternative reality.
Sometimes I end up wondering whether the modern-day craziness is simply the result of a world that is far more crazymaking than that of 50 years ago. The demands placed of people to simply "make it" in a very basic way are certainly far greater than they used to be.
But is that pressure enough to explain people believing that they are secretly part of the Galactic Council, or are talking to beings from alternative dimensions. Or believe that their national leaders are building secret bases on Jupiter. Has that always been around?
Even the more eccentric members of my extended family did not come across as fringe dwellers. Heck, most of them didn't even set foot in a church because religion "didn't make sense to them.
Of course, we do live in the age of the Attention Economy, and maybe crazy is the most likely way to get people to notice you. Which begs the question of whether people are really crazy, or just pretending to be crazy... all in service of a few page views.
Unpredictably crazy people make me feel nervous and uneasy. I'm never sure what they expect me to go along with, next.
And they seem to be everywhere.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great Sunday!
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2026.07.12 01:16 PDT
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