Are you insane?

Ah, that's a catch 22 type of question. It requires a catch 22 type of answer?

What is it to be insane. Simply this: you don't things the way that other people do. And so in that sense I would be.

But hang about. Surely, since we're all individuals, everyone sees things in a different way. There ought to be as many ways of seeing things are there are sentient beings.

Yes, that makes sense. I'd go along with that. The trouble is, so does everyone else. People go along with the crowd. They think not as individuals but as one. Consensus thinking. So . . . everyone is insane then. Certainly if they all hide what they really feel, and defer to the group. That is really insane.

No, but hey. That's unfair. Redefine that definition. If one or a few differ from the majority view, where the majority view is more-or-less accurately represented, then that person is insane.

So . . . if you are the odd man out in a conscientious objector situation as a citszen in Nazi Germany, then you are insane to resist mob-thinking? And as another example, the first scientist to challenge an hypothesis that everyone believes is a Law. That would rather shut down original thinking and research, wouldn't it. Of course it would.

Insanity--there's no such beast. Everyone, no exception, is acting in a rational and sensible manner within the context of their background, genes, world view and what have you.