posted on Apr, 21 2012 @ 11:54 PM
My cousin is a very bright guy, and in his better moments he is both fun to be around and possessed of a big heart. But he's been dealt a rough hand
in life, suffering from schizoid episodes as well as manic depression and other various mental "issues" that seem to plague him on and off.
Sometimes he'll go for months being more or less "normal," only to be blindsided by his mental health problems. He's been in and out of mental
hospitals his whole life, which makes holding down a decent job and lifestyle difficult. Still, despite his problems he struggles to support himself
and live as normal a life as possible rather than relying on handouts from the government or his family, for which I admire him.
One thing I don't admire him for, however is his involvement in extremist politics. He is part of a racist, far right organization, rather deeply
involved as it turns out. I don't want to go into details about which group so that I can protect his privacy and that of his famIly (which is also
my family). But you know the type of group or at least can imagine it. Guys who like to dress up in dark pseudo-militaristic garb with lots of patches
and insignia and snap salutes to each other. They drive around in a sound truck and make speeches full of invection against this or that ethnic
group.
Which brings me to the basic question of this thread: why are so many mentally unstable people seinhly attracted to this kind of thing? You would
think that being "crazed" would mean people wandering off in their own mental directions, which also happens...but so many of them seem to be drawn
to the same ideas again and again. Look at the Nazis - another crazed bunch, and yet they all managed to find each other and believe in the same
things. It's not just politics, of course - there seem to be a handful of concepts that attract the mentally unstable: extreme religion, aliens,
conspiracy, paranoia about survalience for example. I hope I am not stepping on anyone's toes with this observation...but it is a fact. And ATS is
home to some decidedly "crazed" people, in addition to some legitimately brilliant ones (as well as people who seem to be both crazed and brilliant
)
But why are all these loons drawn to the same small set of seemingly very specific ideas? I would expect more variety from broken minds. If you break
a vase the pieces end up in different places, scattered chaotically. But broken minds seem to end up in similar places, time and time again. Why is
this? Is it something about the nature of the mind, the ideas, both, or neither? And why so
specific. Help me to understand, ATS.