Observations From the Spectrum

The sane can clearly see solutions. The insane have the stamina to block them. We may want to stop giving more power and voice to the insane including polticians and grandparents who use single use plastic bags. Crazy is winning and the fallout can be seen in America’s Gun Mental Healthcare Crisis.

Stamina is the ability to maintain a repetitive action over and over for a long time. Ironically, insanity is repeating the same action over and over expecting different results. They are difficult to distinguish. Here is a guide to help you along.

1. Stamina is not static. Insanity is. This means that if you are on repeat with a message like “If Hillary…” or “If Trump…” then you are insane. Why? Because these outcomes didn’t happen and time has passed. Here, take a look at this clip. It illustrates the point perfectly.

2. Stamina takes maintenance. Insanity does not. We may indeed all go through bouts of insanity and it may wax and wane like the moon. Still, insanity is a product of influences and our environment. Stamina is a product of work. It’s why athletes retire. It’s because their bodies can no longer maintain the stamina needed to perform at the levels of their sports. It’s normal. It’s our evolutionary process at work. The kind that all agree on. It’s called aging from cradle to grave.

3. Insanity is a disease that we are still trying to cure. The first rule or suggestion that is given to those on the slippery slope of wackadoodle is to take action and change behaviors, attitudes and thinking processes. When we don’t, the negative or anti-social behaviors grow exponentially until we are nutso. It’s preventable in most cases as long as we catch it in time. Inaction breeds the sick. Action breeds the healthy and the healthy are those with the most stamina.

Every new year gym memberships go through the roof. Don’t believe me. Go to a gym and ask. And every February or March, gym use nose dives. Why? Simple. We recognize collectively that a new year represents a good starting point to become healthier but we give up.

Politics is the same. Every election season our voices get louder and we take action and then post-election get on with our lives with the hope that those we elect have our best interest at heart and that is the primary problem. They do not.

Our elected officials, almost globally, are an insane bunch. They do not act when needed on moral or ethical issues but impede change in these arenas. For example, plastic bags and single use bottles should no longer be manufactured globally. It’s insane. We are as a species committing slow as molasses global suicide. The planet ain’t gonna die. We are. Not just one of us but all of us at our own hands by not acting.

Weird though, many of us do act. We vote for the changes that the politicians sell on both sides of the fence. Then, they find reasons not to act like for profit healthcare, the price of gas, homelessness and mass shootings. They are all related. It’s not the work of the plumber to fix these things. It’s the work of the politicians.

Yet, we accept their mediocrity and middle antics as appropriate and as good politicking. He said. She said. No substance because the problems are getting worse and gaining in number for almost everyone with the exception of the wealthy. Not the rich, the wealthy, Those that own all.

Our leaders have done a magnificent job at designing a society in which we focus solely on our differences and are afraid to discuss our similarities. They have perfected it. We fight to the death over teh difference between Coke & Pepsi or the Denver Broncos & the NY Giants even if we are just soda drinkers or football fans.

The mass public lacks the stamina to fight those that are insane. The outcome unfortunately is that the insane then take over the world which it seems like we have set the course for. An individual can do very little. It’s the collective action of the group that can move mountains. The powerful have learned how to organize the insane so that the mountains that are needed for survival are flattened to pave the way for a road from one boring place to another. Change is needed.