Enter the Crazy

 I'm just going to lay it out.

Our society is not cohesive lately. It's going off the rails, and where the rubber meets the road that means a lot of people are essentially quite mad.

This includes your neighbor, and filters upward due to money and democracy, so it also includes the movers and shakers, and that's where things get super dangerous because it creates a feedback loop, as crazy appeals to crazy and then amplifies itself across the social strata.

It's a black hole, and there is a certain draw to it even as it disgusts us. There's a Hebrew word, to'evah, that to this gentile's ear nevertheless captures the dynamic of perverse yet magnetic - because we try to understand it. Because of this, you actually have to watch yourself so that you don't fall into it.

One way we find ourselves falling into the crazy is by analyzing the crazy, and trying to anticipate their individual behaviors, or worse, we try to appease them to do damage control (which almost never works).

If you moderate your behavior in response to crazy behavior your behavior will become similarly unhinged - this even as you try to counteract the crazy.

The best thing to do is to walk a line between understanding they are part of the landscape, but not letting yourself be controlled by their behavior, or letting it rule your thoughts.

That means we have to look at our policy goals for example, on their own - regardless of the right wing noise machine. Is the filibuster a necessary tool or an impediment? That is a question that can be answered regardless of Mitch McConnell. Do people need paid family leave? etc. Do we prosecute seditionists and other criminals? Is this a nation of laws?

It doesn't matter if they call it socialism. It doesn't matter if you think prosecuting them will lead to reprisal. You don't negotiate with crazy. You don't appease crazy.

Sadly, I believe we've reached critical mass. Crazy has infected so much of this nation that there's not enough stable society left - it's all downhill from here as the threads unravel, faster and faster until some catastrophic social reset.

Still, do what you can to keep yourself at arms length from the day to day of it. Be well.