Thursday, January 15, 2009

What is crazy? In today's terms, it refers to actions that are outside the norm, like eating babies. But that is just today. People used to do that kind of stuff. If you think about crazy in terms of contrast, you can see that to be crazy there must also be a normal.

Crazy/Normal
Black/White
Ying/Yang

So, for every normal, there is a crazy, making crazy itself rather, well, normal. Therefore craziness should be rather embraced, partially because it may become normal. Actions that are crazy are therefore relative temporally, depending on where in time you are.

Right and Wrong have a similar context, and can be added to the list:

Crazy/Normal
Black/White
Ying/Yang
Right/Wrong

Thus, if someone does something wrong, it is specific to that time frame. What if someone is to have committed a wrong, which then becomes right? Are they to be vindicated? What if it becomes wrong again?

This throws into question our entire system of laws and ethics - for they entirely biased on our place in time. What is the point of making laws to enforce right when it will simply becoming wrong within the next century? The simple solution to this is to not make unsustainable judgments. Make laws for the long term, about things that should never happen, no matter what time it is. Murder will always be unlawful. Really anything that violates the individual rights of people should always be unlawful, for the stability of society. Cannibalism? Euthanasia? Abortion? These are issues for which laws should not apply.

Going back to the crazy/normal paradox, if they are so dependent on time, are they to be considered? Can you say with certainty that something is "normal"? I would argue that you cannot, and doing so is futile. Your judgements will be proved incorrect over time.