|
I have (of course) not talked to every homeless person in the world, but it
is my humble opinion that 99% of all homeless people, or "bums", have some
kind of mental problem. I don't mean that as a put-down, I'm serious. Now,
I'm sure that in worse sections of bigger cities than I normally hang out,
you would find relatively normal people who are, for the moment, homeless,
but that is only because there are a lot more homeless people there (i.e. if
you go through 200 bums, you might find 2 or 3 normal people, but that is
still only 1%). Nearly all of the homeless people I've come in contact with
seem to have some mental problems, or at least have such low I.Q.'s that it
borders on retardation. Now... why is that? Some may say that means there
are a lot of crazy people in our society, but the truth is actually a little
different. Our society has an unhealthily low tolerance for personal
deviance. In other words, our society wants everyone to be the same, and
those who aren't find it very hard to fit in. Some even find it so hard
that they are willing to live "outside" society, even if that means possibly
starving to death. Others would really like to be "normalized", but our
society finds the job too difficult and so gives up. Every day seriously
troubled people are booted out of mental hospitals onto the streets. Does
this mean we need bigger mental hospitals that can hold more people? NO!!
We now have more people in mental hospitals than any other society in
history! We claim to have a better understanding of mental illness than
ever before, but all we've done is classify more and more people as mentally
ill. Our society is obsessed with identifying different people as crazy,
because then we'll be one step closer to making everyone exactly alike!
When the government finally succeeds in making everyone exactly the same....
then our economy will run perfectly, because capitalism is based on
consumerism which is based on selling which is a whole lot easier if
everyone is the same - and if you control, through the media, what that one
personality is like. Does this all mean that capitalism is bad? NO!! The
problem is the people who think that our system of government NEEDS to run
perfectly, and so they take it upon themselves to MAKE it run perfectly. It
will NEVER run perfectly... because it's a government run by and inhabited
by REAL PEOPLE. Any and all attempts to make a perfect government will
always fail, which is why the Constitution is so great..... it designed a
GOOD government, not a PERFECT one..... if you want a perfect government,
look up USSR or Rome or Greece or Athens or any of those other attempts.
ANYWAY, what I'm saying is that "different" people are treated in this
country like the worst kind of traitors - they're against the American Way!
(which is, I suppose, to be like everyone else). I know for a fact that
mentally abnormal people can be treated better in this country because there
is a segment of the population in which mental abnormality is not only
tolerated, but glorified. What am I talking about? Famous people, of
course. Actors, athletes, millionaires, all kinds of entertainers, and
pretty much anyone else who is in the "public eye" (i.e. the media). These
people are not only tolerated but loved for behavior that not only can but
does put un-famous people in straightjackets.... and from the mental
institutions to the streets. Anne Heche walked into a house in the middle
of the desert and told the people there she was the Messiah. Michael
Jackson sleeps in an oxygen bubble and likes to have young children sleep in
there with him (I'm not making an accusation, he admitted that on national
television). Angelina Jolie once wore a dress decorated with her own blood,
and has hinted that she sleeps with her brother. We not only put up with
these people, we give them millions of dollars! So why can't we put up with
the guy on 5th and Main who likes to talk about the Apocalypse? I don't
think anyone could argue that for every whacked-out person wandering the
streets, there is some segment of society where they would fit right in. We
live in a many-faceted society, with room for all kinds of people, which is
good. However, what is bad is how rigid the divisions between the facets
are. What our society really hates is people who happen to find themselves
in the wrong segment of society, where their behavior, which is quite normal
in other settings, is considered abnormal. This is one reason that being
born poor and becoming a street person go hand in hand - poor people lack
the means to search for other people like them. They have to just try and
fit in where they are. So anyway, what this all boils down to is this: next
time you talk to someone you think is insane, start imagining them in
different contexts. If you visualize a jabbering street prophet as a famous
free jazz musician, suddenly everything he says makes perfect sense. All
that's wrong with him is that he hasn't found his calling in life.
|
