Socially Accepted Delusion

Delusions come in all types and sizes. To some degree, we all have them. No, I'm not claiming we're all crazy. To suggest that everyone is insane would be far-fetched and untrue. Insanity denotes an extreme psychological peculiarity that inhibits individuals from functioning in society. However, according to How To Win Friends And Influence People, by Dale Carnegie, we're lead to broader understanding of this condition. In his book he writes , "What is the cause of insanity? Nobody can answer such a sweeping question, but we know that certain diseases, such as syphilis, break down and destroy the brain cells and result in insanity. In fact, about one-half of all mental diseases can be attributed to such physical causes as brain lesions, alcohol, toxins and injuries. But the other half - and this is the appalling part of the story - the other half of the people who go insane apparently have nothing organically wrong with their brain cells. In post-mortem examinations, when their brain tissues are studied under the highest-powered microscopes, these tissues are found to be apparently just as healthy as yours and mine." So astonishingly enough, only about half the people with diagnosable insanity have physical neurological flaws that cause hallucinations and radical behavior. The other half suffer a famished and traumatized mind struggling for healthy validation, gratification, and understanding. In many cases pathological liars perpetuate this insanity because parts of it substitute their needs. In both those of physical neurological flaws and those without live in their own versions of reality.

Not all of us are stricken with mental disorders or are unable to have healthy and law-abiding lives. However many people are convinced or create fabrications that lead humanity into severe malfunction and wrong-doings. Millions upon millions of people entertain seemingly innocent or legitimate falsehoods which lead us into a state of malfunction, neurosis, and destructive behavior. These things aren't harmless like believing a wish from a shooting star, thinking the prom queen has the hots for you, or rationalizing eating one more chocolate. In our fear of death, we've created religions and with them, a festering extremism that's managed to bleed all its ignorance into the veins of society. Still not convinced? What about the countless examples of men and women who choose a marriage of livable hatred, or worse, because they think divorce would traumatize the children? Or the criminals and gangs who pillage, slaughter and steal, and consider themselves heroes because their "work" pays some one's rent?

Would you have burned a teenager at the stake for owning a cat? Many would have centuries ago and neither of us may have thought twice about it. I bet you eat eggs for breakfast. Would you protest the dissection of human eggs when it could aid the regeneration of limbs and organs for hospitalized people because you think it's immoral? People do it all the time. It's called stem cell research and Christianity hates it. Drug addicts pretend they don't have a problem, Islamic terrorists strap themselves with bombs for the glorious afterlife, and teenagers become pregnant because contraceptives are considered a sin. People don't vote because they choose to believe one more vote won't make a difference.

What if we all thought like that? Operating under these delusions massacre our future? It's happening for many of us. We cannot accept our situations so we blame it on another race, organization, or gender, or we live the illusion that we are elite members of society. We're all guilty of this to some degree, but it doesn't mean we have to roll over and die. When will people quit living the lies for instant gratification? Can we establish lifestyles and thoughts that aren't responsible for the deterioration of everything we cherish? Are we able to let go of the delusions and act upon our responsibilities?

-Him

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