Insane Societies
Alexander Liss
As individuals, societies could succumb to
insanity. To detect insanity of an individual one has to get into a detailed
conversation with the individual or observe the individual's behavior and
assert that it is detached from reality. An insanity of a society is in open -
it is seen in a delusional culture of society, and when an insane society acts,
its actions are so inhumane that there is no need for a detailed analysis.
People encountering insane individuals do
not want to see their insanity and find various excuses for their behavior.
They even find a glorifying explanation for own behavior as tolerant, etc. A
delusional culture of the insane society contaminates cultures of its observers
and people have even more reasons to come up with various excuses for the
insane society, because they are succumbing to that insanity themselves.
This is an irresponsible and dangerous
behavior. Not confronted insanity stabilizes, becomes increasingly difficult to
deal with, and causes insane behavior increasingly detached from reality, which
is self-destructive and is aimed at destruction of others.
Many events of the twentieth century could
be explained only as a result of insanity of society. They have many causes:
economic, cultural, ideological, etc., but all these causes cannot force a
normal society into such degree of inhumanity.
In the beginning of twentieth century
insanity of European society caused death of millions of people through
military actions and diseases. The magnitude of this disaster should bring the
society to its senses, but it did not. Insanity of the Russian society
progressed into a civil war and acceptance of communist ideology as a basis of
its culture. Insanity of the German society progressed into ideology of Nazism
uniformly accepted as a basis of its culture.
Gradually, the society of
Untreated, insanity spread through the
world. In societies, which did not succumb to it, way too many found this insanity
not only acceptable, but desirable. Insane actions as genocide were excused.
Eventually, the insanity of society caused
another mass destruction of human life.
Even after the end of Cold War and
disintegration of insane communist culture of the
When one's neighbor exhibits signs of
dangerous insanity, one takes care of it, usually by calling police. This is
done in spite of all respect for neighbor's privacy. Early intervention is a
prerequisite of a good prognosis.
In a case of a society, there is no police
to call. Stable delusions rarely go away without intervention, before they
cause substantial damage. Early intervention means unequivocal and perpetual
pointing to the society's delusion and increasingly intrusive actions. When an
early intervention has been missed, a late intervention is practically always
needed; usually, the late intervention is expensive.
Even for a member of an insane society, it
is easy to recognize the disorder, and it is possible to recognize it early.
When a dominant culture of a society is in
a severe contact with a flexible, adapting to changing reality culture, then
the dominant culture of the society is delusional and the society is insane.
One could trace in history conflicts of dominant cultures with the Jewish
culture and see how increasing insanity of the corresponding societies
manifested itself in other areas.
Often, monotheism is a good preventive
measure against insanity of society. No wonder that insane societies either
destroy monotheism or corrupt it.
Some delusional cultures could be cured
through destruction of their delusions. As with individuals, such cure is often
non trivial.
Some cultures are beyond repair. They have
to be destroyed completely and society should be rebuilt on the basis of
another culture. This is always a difficult task.