What is Crazy?

We all call people crazy. "That fool just dropped out of an expensive law school, he's crazy!"

Imagine someone wanting to rob a bank in today's world, that's crazy. If I were to say I wanted to rob a bank, you would say I'm crazy.

But what I'd like to say is two things, one, that we define crazy wrong and two, robbing a bank is not crazy, it's stupid.

There is a big difference between making bad choices and being "crazy." That's the key here. If I want to rob a bank, that would be a bad choice. If I drop out of an expensive law school, most likely, that's a bad choice. Or applying for admission to the law school in the first place might have been a bad choice.

Either way, those are bad choices, not crazy.

If you come to me and say you are buying a gun and robbing Chase bank down the street. I might say, "Man, you is fucking crazy!" But I'm wrong. You are making a bad choice. Anyone who does stupid things, if we believe in value and objectivity, can be said to be making bad choices. It's a real thing and people do it everyday, especially in Houston.

Crazy is when you rob a bank and, in earnest to yourself or others (ie: not as a lie), say you didn't rob it.

Me: "You just walked into that bank with a gun and told the teller to hand you the bills, I saw you do it!"

"No, that wasn't robbing a bank, that was the way I normally make a withdrawal."

Now pay attention. If you're lying about robbing the bank, again, that's a bad decision. Not crazy. Robbing the bank is a bad decision, etc. Lying is normal (it might not be good but it is normal).

Being confused about what is real is not normal.

But what humans do is they see themselves as they are not. They confuse reality and fantasy. The defend their religious nonsense by claiming that God "gives" you free will (you can't "give" free will or it isn't free), and that's crazy. Religion in this instance is not a bad choice, it is crazy.

If you drop out of law school and yet claim you did something else, or fail to understand that you dropped out, or call the "dropping out" something else entirely and attempt to change the nature of reality …. yes, that shit is crazy.

Doing something stupid is a bad choice. Failing to acknowledge reality in any given circumstance and then attempting to create a new reality, that is crazy. Try it on the edge of a cliff. You'll see what happens.

See the difference?