Najois

Isn’t it ironic how you get a brain by nature, but depending on where you are and when you are there, you get forced into a certain way of thinking and using your brain?
You get forced to acknowledge what is normal, thus acceptable and what isn’t.
If you would put someone from 100 years ago in our current society, chances are they might think we are crazy.

Yet we shape our reality totally by what is deemed the norm
So we can feel safe. So we can feel normal.

I start to think more and more that those we call “crazy” are actually very necessary in societies, because they force us to see the reality we take for absolute truth, from a different angle.
They often find no logic in what we see as normal. And have a difficult time adjusting to the rules and regulations.
Apparently, you can live on this earth, yet experience it totally on another level. You can experience it on a unique way.

But since this is scary territory and we feel safe in our ways of thinking, we reject these and hide them away. Because they disturb. They call them dangerous. But not all people with a “mental illness” are dangerous. Some of them are. Of course.
Not in a higher percentage than the “normal” people that cheat you, steal, kill and cause wars that we sometimes even elect as leaders or even look up to.
So are we actually crazy too?

What I really mean by this, is that our thoughts are shaped by group thinking and what you have been thought. You will think mostly like the ones in your direct environment.
You will want people to agree with what you think to be true. So you feel normal and accepted.

And the danger is that because of this, your thinking becomes poor and stagnant. No matter how “smart” you are. Mostly people are recognised as ‘smart’ when they tick the boxes of what we have determined as smart. And I know, because I actually happen to tick the boxes, yet have difficulty to conform at the same time.

University degree? Check
Polyglot? Check
Artistic? Check
Well read? Check
Eloquent? Check

We do not want to confront our thoughts with people that do not agree with us or have a different way of approaching reality. We see them as a treat.

But using one’s brain truly is not staying in safe prefabricated and consensus based territory.
It is muddy, insecure, you might get lost. You might even get hurt and walk alone. And yes, seeking for truth, you might offend a person or two.

No fun time. Which is why most of us prefer to instinctively stay in the safe zone.
But no great discoveries are made by not allowing ourselves to be insane. By insane I mean to wander off the track.

We live in times of opinions. Emotional and often misinformed and consensus based opinions.
But is your opinion true?
Is your opinion useful?
Is your opinion really informed, taking into consideration other realities than your own?

These stagnant waters, to me, are starting to rot.
And this coupled with our irresponsible use of social media which is consensus based (likes, comments, etc), is extremely dangerous for the development of the mind.
Because it makes you fear to express your ideas. Because ideas are temporary, but now ideas are a fixed identity. So it is better to adhere to ideas of large groups amd stay safe, than to explore alternate realities at the risk of being socially ostracized or even physically put at risk.