“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
A 21-year-old white nationalist drives 600 miles to El Paso, Texas and kills 22 men, women and children with his assault weapon because he hates immigrants―particularly Hispanics. If this isn’t insanity, I don’t know what is.
Let’s face it. We now find ourselves in the ranks of the insane.
In his book, A Thousand Small Sanities, Adam Gopnik discusses several themes and values underlying a sane society. Three stood out to me that seem most relevant to the heinous acts of domestic terrorism we have recently witnessed: Communities vs. Clans, Specificity vs. Generality, Fallibility vs. Infallibility. Let me address each of them here in an attempt to get a grip on what a sane society looks like and to assess the threat caused by the waves of hate, fear and insanity drowning us daily.
Clan vs Community:
Clans are characterized by identity whether it is as liberals, conservatives, Republicans, Democrats, Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, whites, blacks, or browns. Communities are built through interdependence of all religions and races. Clans need strictly defined rules and depend on compliance to widely socialized norms that have a nostalgic attachment to the past. Communities welcome differences and seek ways to build a better future designed for the common good of all its constituents. Clans depend on obedience to the status quo or party line. Communities build strength by welcoming argument and deep debate. Clans are distinguished by conformity; Communities are distinguished by creativity.
Our communities are under assault from clannish identities, beliefs and behaviors.
Specificity vs. Generality:
Each new case of violence requires a deep inquiry into the specifics of the event. In the El Paso massacre, there are abundant facts: a 21 year-old, white, male nationalist legally purchased an assault weapon, posted an anti-immigrant manifesto, and drove 600 miles from Dallas to El Paso with the specific intent of killing Hispanics. This specific act cannot be painted over with glib generalities like: killers are mentally deranged; we need to put more guns in the hands of good guys; video games are the culprit; people kill―not guns; or our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims of violence.
Particularities matter.
The definition of racism is to make broad assumptions about an individual and then assign those attributes to the group.
By so doing, we lose track of the specific motivations and capabilities of each person.
Our society is under assault from self-righteous and self-serving generalizations about sex, race, sexual orientation, climate change, gun control, immigration and on and on.
Fallibility vs. Infallibility:
We are all flawed human beings. We all have thoughts and feelings that we wish we didn’t have. And we have all committed shameful acts of one nature or another. To pretend we are perfect is insane. No one is infallible including priests, presidents, popes or panderers.
Believing that government or church leaders are divinely chosen to dictate our lives makes no sense.
Unashamedly proclaiming to be a proud religious supporter of the NRA is certifiably nuts.
We are under assault by people who are pretending to be one thing while proposing policies that are in direct contradiction of who they say they are.
When I conduct 360 interviews to assess leadership effectiveness, I ask people to rate how well a particular leader is engendering trust in his or her organization.
I ask people to assess a leader’s credibility, reliability, connectedness, and selfishness on a 1-10 scale with 10 being high and 1 being low.
Credibility is about words, i.e. you can bank on whatever the person says is true―she has deep knowledge and expertise, doesn’t make shit up, and doesn’t shoot from the hip.
Reliability is about action―the leader does what she says when she says she will do it.
Connectedness is the ability to form personal and professional connections, which is a combination of empathy and transparency.
Empathy is the ability to demonstrate accurate understanding of what a person of group is thinking or feeling.
Transparency is the willingness to be appropriately open and vulnerable.
Selfishness is the leaders’ need to draw all attention to himself and to take credit for anything good that happens―the degree to which he blows his own horn.
A perfect score is 10 on the first three trust factors and a 1 on the last factor, i.e. unselfish and humble. If I were rating the current occupant of the White House, I would give him 1’s on credibility, reliability, and connectedness and a 10 on selfishness―the worst possible score.
We are under assault by a completely untrustworthy snake-oil salesman who does not even meet the most basic requirements of being a leader.
Marianne Williamson cites a “dark psychic force” happening in America.
Russ Douthat describes a “black spiritual hole” as the source of the hatred and violence ripping apart our hearts and our heartland.
The Twitter King fuels the fire of these sources and forces. Here is his tweet after El Paso: “Hate has no place in our country, and we’re going to take care of it.
Compare that vapid and vague comment to Obama’s profound plea.
Yes, we are under assault by a thousand big insanities. Perhaps we need to offer a basic course in Sanity 101 for all Americans.
Here is my point. We need to create a sane society that seeks to build interdependent communities, strives to find the specific cause of our problems, recognizes and owns our fallibilities, and works hard to earn the trust of community members by being more credible, reliable, empathic, transparent, and humble.
Those behaviors and values would form the core curriculum of a basic course on Sanity 101.
A sane society values differences and welcomes argument realizing that no one has all the right answers and we can only get better by opening up, telling the truth, and making ourselves vulnerable. 
A sane society is not built by over-powering people, imposing values, demanding rigid compliance to dogmatic rules, and expecting the road to a better future is going to be a straight path or the result of “easy” fixes.
There will be bumps along the way. The questions are:
- How do we handle those bumps?, and
- What can we do to build a more loving and compassionate community?
I don’t know how we find an escape from the ranks of the insane.
Over 2,000 years ago, during a period of relative peace and stability, Marcus Aurelius, a Roman emperor and stoic philosopher, meditated on this question. And here we are in 2019, during a period of multiple wars and global instability, pondering the same thing.
Hopefully, we will find an escape and find a sane place.
I’m not sure we have another 2,000 years to ponder.
Thanks for keeping me sane Ricky!