Judgment Day
“But it was only fantasy,
The wall was too high
As you can see
No matter how he tried
He could not break free
And the worms ate into his brain…” Hey you, Pink Floyd
One of the deepest thoughts that I have is what defines madness and what defines sanity. How do we know that the people we call “crazy” are not really the normal people? And that it is us who live blindly in a society that constantly puts chains on us, that locks out the people who do not share the same ideas or that don’t let others manipulate them. There is a phrase that I really like: “Sólo un pelo separa a un loco de un genio”. In English it means that the difference between someone crazy and a genius is so small that only a hair would fit in between.
I think what really defines madness is your cultural context, the place where you live and the people you live with, also the time when you are living. For example if the Beatles were from Mexico and at that time they would have tried to form their band and play, people would judge them crazy or wouldn’t even listen to them. They wouldn’t like them, because at that time people listened to Pedro Infante or “música ranchera”. It wasn´t common at that time, because people thought differently.
I also think that many “crazy” people are just misunderstood and after some time they just get caught up in their thoughts so much that they lose themselves in their mind, searching for answers, asking questions…
I believe that society shouldn’t be so harsh in its judgment and criticism of thought or ideas; after all the world is made of ideas and thoughts. And if it weren’t for the close minded people maybe we would be much more advanced in many ways, for example: I look to the past and see how they criticized Leonardo Da Vinci for his revolutionary ideas, how they all thought that they would never work and even called him a mad man. But it is proven that all of his inventions did work – and perfectly.
But Leonardo wasn’t the only one who got judge. One time I was with my friend Ramiro who had a big Mohawk and used a lot of spike bracelets, and that morning I had just woke up and didn’t even brush my hair. But the problem was that I had long messy hair and beard so I looked like a hippie. So we were out in the beach talking when suddenly a guy with long curly hair and beard and a lost gaze. I don’t know if he thought that we used drugs just because the way we looked but he came and asked us if we had any weed. We looked at each other and started laughing and we just said no, the guy just said thanks and walked away.
I believe that people should take time to get to know the persons before they actually start to judge their ideas or to make stereotypes. We should learn to be tolerant and to respect different ideas or thoughts