Today I noticed something very interesting... Have you ever noticed that highly gifted people are usually said to be crazy and are hugely misunderstood? Have you noticed how Mozart, Beethoven and many others have such a hard and complex life? And Van Gogh, Camille Claudel, many others... many of them finished in mad houses... why? Are they really crazy or we are crazy? How a crazy person can oaint beautifull things or compose amazing pieces? Haven't we misjudged them? If they are genius, then who are the crazy ones? Maybe they were right... Let's see... it's written in the Bible... Isaiah 55:8,9 "8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. " 1 Corinthians 3:19 "19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness." Maybe they knew God... who else would give them their gifts? But the world could not understand them... John 14:17 "17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. " 1 John 3:1 "1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. " Maybe they knew God... Maybe that's why "we" cannot understand them... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Any thoughts? Edit: Oh shit... I pushed the button for a pool and it didn't worked...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! *sight... Anyways...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
There is a very blurred line between madness and genius. Some ancient cultures believed madmen to be gifts from the gods. I am in no position to deny this claim. The best of us often do not function well in society. It seemes one can either do great things or function well, but not both. Aah... to be a blessed lunatic. It would be a curse to one's self and a gift to the rest of the world.
I guess they (...or we...Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!... I'm a pianist... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ) don't function well on society because society wasn't designed to give the world great things, but rather just to work as pieces of a machinery. I often fell like a slave of this society as all the work that is avaiable for me to do is extremely mechanical and repetitive with no space for me to be creative and be always changing... Everyone just work everyday doing the very same thing for what...? It makes no sense... Maybe someone should use his/her genius to design a better system... We designed a system so bad that our best people often dies or get nuts because of it... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I think our system don't work very well because it limits to much oneself... And also, specialization is a pretty big problem as it makes the everyday life extremely repetitive... But I have no idea how to solve those problems... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
The real culprit of insanity is society its self. The general population has very distinct ideas about what is "normal" and anything beyond that is frightening. Anyone that doesn't fit in with "normal" people is strange, insane, stupid, devient among many other discriptions people use. It seems that most people are so concerned with fitting in and being "normal" that they don't stop to think that there is no such thing. I almost feel sorry for people that consider themselves normal because they spend their entire life searching for something they will never find because it doesn't exist. I don't mind being called strange or weird at all. Why should I? To the general public it's true. However I get very angry when people say I'm crazy because it's not true. I tend to think of crazy people being criminally insane, otherwise we're just harmless excentrics that only disturb those of mediocre thought.
I'd rather be extraordinary than normal, and would trade changing people's lives for the better through some artistic means for dying in an asylum. I don't know what it is, but ever since the latter grades in elementary school I've had this...reputation, I don't know...of being intelligent, and sometimes if I do badly or less than average on any assignment people will act surprised, a few weeks ago one person was shocked with my grade in my insanely hard honors bio class and shouted: "but you're a genius!" But the bottom line is that if I were a genius I would get straight A's in school instead of B's and C's. I might have thought that I was a genius when I was extremely naive, I think my very very early posts here reflect this. I may know a few historical facts and I may be able to spell and write but that all makes no difference if there's nothing tangible behind the letters. I can't stand people saying that I'm smart because it reminds me every single time that I'm really not and that for whatever reason they can't identify this fact as well as I can. But the word genius is just not a good word for our society. Genius implies that someone knows everything about anything, I think the part Brendan Frasier played in Bedazzled (which was, btw, a pretty bad movie but nontheless funny) displayed this pretty readily, with his intelligent character speaking paragraphs about wines or tablecloths or whatever. If you're going to call someone a genius, say that they're a genius with an instrument of some sort (not just musical). Call it political (Hitler), Musical (Mozart), Written Word (Dostoevsky, JD Salinger), or what have you, but don't just call someone a genius without attaching the appropriate adjective. Now where were we...? Yeah...genius' who go nuts. Well, I guess I'd have to say that they weren't that smart if they didn't manage to hold onto their sanity, maybe it's just because I can't empathize with them that I don't understand....
Genuis?? Billy Corgan IS a genius. i kid you not. and, did you guys realize there is a fine, fine..very fine line between genius and insanity...?
Pollux V, The point of the thread is to ask wheter we are "sane" or they are "sane". If they were genius, how could they be not "sane". Have it ever came to you that you might be the "insane" one? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Maybe what we call "sane" and "normal", is actually what we think as "insane"... and vice-versa... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! pumpkinsaren'torange, Yup.... I guess it is because it is hard to be different... I guess those people that have so much talent actually know what the reality is... that's why they have their power. I kinda think that "we" are the insane ones...
Is it fair to say that the minority is the one to hold the keys of change? I was just thinking about this the other night: If you think about anything that has 'mutated,' you might find that there is a good chance that the creation will be stronger..The oddball is the origin of the society. (society being any flourishing group of germ, plant, and animal..human) That might be a strange way of looking at it.. I think there are very many oddballs in our society! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Maybe the ones that have the ability to make themselves practical are the ones we call genius? Just a thought...or two
What I call genius is people that stand up against the system. They go against it and try to change it so that they can fit in, instead of try to adjust to the system as the huge majority of people do... They usually express themselves in the arts... They can learn very fast... probably because their brains can do more connections in a smaller amount of time then the average. It's not about the amount of knowledge, but rather, how easy it is something to be learnt. It's the potential that matters, not the active... that's what I think a genius is... I guess...
Hi truthseeker! long time no see and: have you considdered that it's not so genious at all to remember (or learn) things in a fast way. I say it's genious if you'd manage to live your life according to your own principles, to manage even that is hard to do for some. and last: what makes people geniouses is this: the appraise they get from people,... if you can conquer yourself, that's genious If someone realizes that matter is energy and that mind is above matter, that's genious. Peace, fukushi
Yeah... I garee with you. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! But learn fast might be considered a form of genius. If you learn fast also means that you can learn more... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! However, I would say that a true genius person is one that knows oneself and overcomes his/her own limits. I don't think most people really know themselves and even less that they overcome their difficulties (like smoking or drinking or whatever...)...
I was reading an article about bobby fischer the greatest chess player of all time who throughout his time played chess, alone, up to 14hrs a day and had little or no education in any other areas. Although he was considered a genius he is also insanely paranoid ie who refuses to attend courts because they are ran by jews and believes that his filings have tracking devices in them and has so had them all removed. But it was laing who devised the idea that schizophrenics are not crazy merley their schizophrenia is a reaction to a crazy world in which they cannot tolerate. Perhaps we are the crazy ones....looking at aspects of culture deemed normal i would tend to agree with this.
"there is nothing wrong with the world today...whats wrong is our way of looking at it." Henry Miller ?I think he said that back in the 50's or something....lol.
whenever I'm a writer and whenever I'm seriously, really writing I am crazy. I am mean to my mother; I don't see anyone, I have mystical, cosmic vibrations and a sense of urgency about random stuff. Then all of a sudden one day I have 70 pages of quality work and I realize there is a whole world out there. Then I'm kind of timid for awhile (since I haven't talked to anybody in a month.) But during my writing time I can't stand anybody; and whatever they say becomes text somehow, and fiction. real life and fake life just corrode each other into one imaginary world. is this crazy, I wonder, or is it just work?
Awesome Thread!!!! I dug it up from far below!!! I have been told I am crazy, nuts, insane, and other words of misunderstanding throughout my entire life. Let's see...it started in kindergarten and continued up into high school. College and the Uni where a little different, because I learned how to blend in more. Then I come up with some strange new discovery that is damn near impossible for anyone to understand and I am called crazy!?! Well...at least not everyone jumps to conclusions and most often those who do change their minds after some time. Even my parents and my wife have said that I am a little...well say, unusual. But no one on earth has been able to tell me what it is I invented/discovered and exactly how it works. And until I can get a clear answer I can't take anyone's claims that I am crazy seriously, if they can't tell me about my work...who are they to make a Judgment? I'll check up on this more later!!!
I know how you mean...I tested as gifted in first year. I'm also very ASDish though. I often think people are being sarcastic when they're not, and I take things far too seriously.
I am very unpredictable myself. I might take everything serious one minute and laugh about it all the next. I do see a connection between madness and genius, too much knowledge and awareness ungrounded can drive on over. I am constantly trying to keep myself grounded. It gets better...because I can see energy that other people cannot. I have discovered how it can be done in a reproduce-able scientific approach. If you do it...you see it...end of story. And if you keep it up...well issues of craziness are bound to be asked. Visceral Instinct, I do not think you are crazy or sane. I think everyone on earth is crazy and sane to an extent. The madness and stabilization come and go in waves. Do you know anyone who would remain sane if they underwent massive trauma. Under the right circumstances anyone can lose it. If someone is a little unusual, then there are usually good chances that they can endure more trauma then those who have had easy lives giving to them.
