Madness set them free...
Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the awesome power that we have over one another or in other words the power that society has over us. And society is us of course...I have heard so many people give enlightened discourses on the evils of society...it is a topic that almost anybody can jabber away on. How many of us actually realise that when we speak of the evils of society we are actually talking about ourselves?
Then there are all those rules that are imposed upon us all -ranging from basic law and order to idiosyncratic propriety. At some time or the other all of us wish that we could just break free and do whatever the hell we wanted without the rest of the world beating us down.
A while back, I read a book called "Veronika decides to die" by Paulo Coelho. It isn't exactly one of my favourites but here are a few extracts from the book that I think are relevant here. They tell you about life inside a feared mental institution named 'Vilette' in a country called Slovenia.
"There's a group of people here, men and women who could have left, who could be back home, but who don't want to leave. There are many reasons for this:Vilette isn't as bad as people say, although it's far from being a five-star hotel. Here inside, everyone can say what they like, do what they want, without being criticised, after all, they're in a mental hospital. "
"After so many years of going straight from work to a bar, from that bar to the bed of some lover, from his bed to her room, from her room to her mother's house, she was now experiencing something she had never dreamed of: a mental hospital, madness, an insane asylum, where people were not ashamed to say they were mad, where no one stopped doing something they were enjoying just to be nice to others"
"...Imagine a place where people pretend to be mad in order to do exactly what they want."
Haven't you ever wanted something like that? Maybe just for the briefest moment, in the most careless way...but haven't you ever thought about what it would like to live like in a world where your every action is not constantly being watched, judged and regulated?
What if you desire to prance about the streets like a maniac or dance naked in the rain...or maybe just something small like not having to think carefully before letting one word escape your mouth...
Of course, the world would be engulfed in complete pandemonium if this actually happened. Our lives would come to a halt if everyone let their wildest fantasies loose. Which is why such a world is either found in a mental asylum or in our imaginations...
Then there are all those rules that are imposed upon us all -ranging from basic law and order to idiosyncratic propriety. At some time or the other all of us wish that we could just break free and do whatever the hell we wanted without the rest of the world beating us down.
A while back, I read a book called "Veronika decides to die" by Paulo Coelho. It isn't exactly one of my favourites but here are a few extracts from the book that I think are relevant here. They tell you about life inside a feared mental institution named 'Vilette' in a country called Slovenia.
"There's a group of people here, men and women who could have left, who could be back home, but who don't want to leave. There are many reasons for this:Vilette isn't as bad as people say, although it's far from being a five-star hotel. Here inside, everyone can say what they like, do what they want, without being criticised, after all, they're in a mental hospital. "
"After so many years of going straight from work to a bar, from that bar to the bed of some lover, from his bed to her room, from her room to her mother's house, she was now experiencing something she had never dreamed of: a mental hospital, madness, an insane asylum, where people were not ashamed to say they were mad, where no one stopped doing something they were enjoying just to be nice to others"
"...Imagine a place where people pretend to be mad in order to do exactly what they want."
Haven't you ever wanted something like that? Maybe just for the briefest moment, in the most careless way...but haven't you ever thought about what it would like to live like in a world where your every action is not constantly being watched, judged and regulated?
What if you desire to prance about the streets like a maniac or dance naked in the rain...or maybe just something small like not having to think carefully before letting one word escape your mouth...
Of course, the world would be engulfed in complete pandemonium if this actually happened. Our lives would come to a halt if everyone let their wildest fantasies loose. Which is why such a world is either found in a mental asylum or in our imaginations...
posted by A.S. at 3:11 AM
2 Comments:
so true...man...totally...but u can only 'wish' dat so many things were allowed or were possible...damn...
Mark Twain once said “Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination”
Very thought provoking indeed! Unfortunately, hypocrisy cannot be wished away and we all walk around with a false mask of sanity to blend into this insane world! Ironic!
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