Below is my column as delivered to the editors of the Sturbridge Times Magazine for the April, 2015 issue
Call me crazy, or something
by Richard Morchoe
There is a vast population of high
functioning people who harbor ideas that seem valid, but are
delusional. They are everywhere, including the highest levels of
government and business. This class are our friends and relatives,
and sadly, you and I need only look in the mirror to meet them.
The folks under discussion are not
people who need to be cared for. Most can rise in the morning,
competently dress and go to a business or place of employment and
spend the day doing useful work. Many attain success in their chosen
field.
What is the horrible malady victimizing
our population? It is not insanity. The afflicted need not be
restrained from doing harm to themselves or others. At large, they
are not a threat to public order. Indeed there is no description of
the condition in the DSM-5(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders, 5th Edition, it is used to diagnose and
classify mental disorders).
As pervasive as it is, there is almost
no discussion of it anywhere. The only thing to be done was to
engage the resources of our official think tank, The Long Hill
Institute for the Study of Heretofore Unrecognized Psychological
Conditions (LHIftSoHUPC for short).
A wonderful aspect of the LHIftSoHUPC is
that the shoot from the hip methodology means there are never
interminable hours of research. A name for the condition and a
definition of terms were arrived at almost instantaneously.
Thus we have Unsanity, that is, a
condition where an individual believes feelings are thoughts, facts
or arguments.
Your columnist is himself a victim. I
firmly hold that ingesting huge quantities of Stonyfield Creme
Caramel Ice Cream is healthy because it's organic. Even worse, I
trust and act on the advertisement that says “Guinness is good for
you” because they wouldn't let them say that if it weren't true.
The cognitive aberrations of a scribbler
at a regional magazine are of no import in the great world. However,
when people of position pontificate wildly, it should give us pause.
Marie Harf is deputy spokesperson at
State. In that position she has the unenviable job of defending
administration foreign policy. In a well-reported exchange with
Chris Matthews, Ms. Harf suggested; “we cannot win this war by
killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the
medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people
to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs.”
So that's all it takes to win the War on
Terror, a jobs program. Forget that the guy known as Jihadi John,
who beheads the hostages, is a highly employable tech grad. Also put
aside when suicide bombers blow themselves up they are yelling
“Allahu Akbar” and not “if only I had a job at Goldman Sachs or
flipping burgers or working as a spokesflack at Foggy Bottom.”
Marie, and one might guess a lot of
Americans, might find it hard to grasp that not everyone in the world
just wants wage slavery. They would be well advised to read George
Orwell's review of Mein Kampf. Orwell, a man who was not unsane,
noted that Hitler said, “"I
offer you struggle, danger and death," and as a result a whole
nation flings itself at his feet.” The lovely life of happy
self-actualization the West offers is not a universal aspiration.
There is no lack of people who find it empty.
Then again, The Allies were able to
disabuse Germany of the notion by killing one heck of a lot of them
over five years.
Ms. Harf accused her critics of not
being able to understand “too nuanced an argument.” that would
seem to be a new way of saying “I was taken out of context”
except that she said it with not a little confidence. On Long Hill,
we agree the war is not going to be won by killing, but neither is
the universal jobs idea a winner. If after almost a decade and a
half, all we seem to get is more war, maybe the game is not worth
it. That's no more an unsane conclusion than any other.
Despite the fact that we have savaged
conservatives such as Ann Coulter, Howie Carr and Mitt Romney in the
pages of this magazine, there is the view extant that we are running
a militia up on Long Hill. Thus, we feel it incumbent on us to
search to starboard for unsanity. Fortunately, our country is a
target rich environment across the board.
The Capo di Tutti Capi of conservative
talk is a prime example of the phenomenon. Rush Limbaugh rose to
prominence in the early 90s when shilling for Gulf War I. He has
always been a self-proclaimed champion of liberty. His show is one
long paean to freedom.
Until it is time to hide under the bed
in fear. According to Mr. Freedom, in light of the Snowden
revelations, “Our civil liberties are worthless if we are dead! If
you are dead and pushing up daisies, if you're sucking dirt inside a
casket, do you know what your civil liberties are worth? Zilch, zero,
nada.”* True enough as nothing matters at that point other than
how you lived your life. The LHIftSoHUPC can only render a diagnosis
of Grand Mal Unsanity.
The
LHIftSoHUPC can do little to help the high and mighty with the
condition no matter how pervasive it is among the elite. We are here
for the citizenry of our region even if the fee structure has not
been set and we are a bit fuzzy on treatment. However, if a client
is not satisfied, we offer a complimentary dish of ice cream or pint
of stout. Your choice.
*From No Place to Hide, by Glenn
Greenwald reviewed in the Jul,y 2014 Sturbridge Times Magazine.
