Here's something else that I spend way too much time talking about - sanity and confusion. At some time or another, most of us have been called insane and have actually been confused (sometimes about being called insane). First of all, it's just not nice to call people names and second no one's "insane". There I go again, messing with people's popular conception of reality - well damn me. I'm still gonna explain it.

Again, these are only opinions (though I firmly believe that they are the right ones). Take what you can from them and ignore the rest. Let your mind wander about the ideas and perhaps you'll see things differently in the end. Or perhaps you'll wonder why they ever let me out of the asylum - it doesn't really matter to me.

So to begin...

Okay. What I'm saying is that sanity and insanity are merely labels. Nothing more and nothing less. I am no more sane or insane than anyone else. Here's why.

Sanity and insanity are concepts of reality. One of the terms used in determining sanity is ones perception of reality. And what is reality? From what I've gathered, reality is what we perceive to be real - perceive is the operative word here. No one can dictate reality to anyone else - because reality is subjective to the individual. So, if reality is subjective, then how can we really tell what's real and what isn't? You can't! No one can! Yet people do all the time. If what someone else doesn't perceive reality the same way that we are at the moment, then we deem them insane and put them away. Out of sight, out of mind. A simple solution for a group of simpletons.

Sanity was conceived by the majority, for the majority. And if you aren't in that majority, then you're screwed. No one wants to hear about how the things you see could indeed possibly be real - you're sick and need help. Pump you full of drugs and put you in a padded room for a few months. Then they set you loose and send you on your way - firmly planted in their reality. No one ever stops to consider that the majority could be wrong and the 'insane' people could be right. That's just too weird.

All sanity is is a form of mass mind control. Think this way and we accept you, love you, and respect you. Dare to differ from us and we force you to believe as we do regardless. It's 1984 with a twist. Scary thought, but we have indeed let the popular majority control our minds. So that's reality and sanity.

People don't like to be confused. It makes them fell helpless, lost, and frightened. It also makes them think - and that's what scares people most. Not too many people like to think that confusion can be good for them. I tend to think that (if I happen to be in a good mood, that is).

Imagine - if everyone always knew what was going on and how it all worked, then who'd need to think? Who'd need to try? That's the point I'm trying to make - without some sort of confusion, we'd all stop and give it up. No one would bother trying to think of anything new, just go with the old ideas that make sense. Dull dull dull.

That's why philosophy's so fun. You throw around some completely alien ideas and try to let someone think around it (or straight through it). Or take an old idea and throw a twist into it. Confuse some people and let them think about it for a while - sometimes they'll perceive something wonderful, something that would have never occurred to them otherwise. All because they're too busy trying to make sense of it all. If we started thinking about things instead of merely reacting to them, we'd not only become more enlightened, but more accepting of the ideals of others. What a happy world that would be.

Okay, confusion probably wasn't the best subject to throw around here. Perhaps I should have thrown around the analogy of psychology being the new world religion (don't worry, I'll DEFINATLY get to that one - but it deserves a section all it's own). For the meantime, I needed something to fill in the space here. Well, that was confusion - your friend.

Sanity is only in the minds of the majority and confusion isn't all that bad for you. These aren't the kind of things that I just make up on the spot - it took years of wading through life to come up with all this. People can dictate to us what and how we think and we just blissfully accept it and go about our cattle-like lives letting ourselves and our reality be created for us. When do we stand up and say 'life is my own, and you can't tell me what it is!'? Personally, I don't think it ever will - people like to be controlled. It's human nature. We're all slaves to something, weather it be ourselves or some one else...

*update type thingie!*

It's been a couple few days after writing the above, and I don't really think I got my point across that well. I'm not going to 'fix' it, though. If you really want to go further into it, contact me and we'll talk about it. Otherwise, make your own conclusions - that's the real point of this.