“If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane.”
– Jimmy Buffet and the Coral Reefer Band, 1977

The striking eye of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski’s Crazy Horse: Walter Simon

The Big Picture –
By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Here’s a Sunday challenge: Do a Google search for “mental health crisis.” There is no doubt a mental health crisis grips this country, and probably the world.

Glynn Wilson

Covid worsened an already growing mental health crisis, along with crazy Trump tweets and social media use in general, as human brains are being rewired by the work of hacker/programmers with no education or experience in knowing what the results of their work would be, except that it would make a few of them billionaires.

Now what will they do with their unfathomable wealth? Probably just goes crazy like everybody else.

There is a mental health crisis in education, in families, in prisons, even among health care workers.

I met a homeless man this week sleeping in a tent in subfreezing weather. It took him a very long pause to answer the question: Are you homeless? He literally had to think about it for a minute. He finally said, “yes,” and I wrote down an 800 number for him to call about getting a bed in a local county shelter.

He probably won’t go there, because he said even in the place where he was recently paying rent and sharing an apartment with others, he ended up sleeping in his tent in the backyard anyway, “Because I sleep better outside,” he said.

When I recently made the comment at a Christmas party that it seems everybody seems to be going crazy these days, one educated man pointed out that yes, we are all a little neurotic. Maybe that’s what prevents us from all going totally insane, which seems to be Jimmy Buffet’s point.

Unfortunately, this mental health crisis will not be the focus in Congress when the Republicans take over in January. The crazies there will take over the Capitol building for awhile, even as they failed on Jan. 6, 2021. So don’t expect much help from the federal government over the next two years. You will be on your own.

Crazy will be on public display for the foreseeable future.

And nowhere is the crazy on public display more than on Twitter, where Elon Musk has taken over the building.

Related

A Faustian Bargain? Elon Musk’s Behavior Hints That His Time is Almost Up

The Twitter Files: The Removal of Donald Trump

Media Crazy

But it also looks like crazy is taking over at The New York Times and The Washington Post, institutions we used to be able to count on at least for basically honest reporting on what’s going on. Morale at the Times is so bad the staff is threatening to walk out on strike, and even at the Post, they are wondering what’s going on with management, where a new publisher appointed by tech billionaire Jeff Bezos has announced serious downsizing as a recession appears to be coming, as indicated by advertising sales.

Related: Holiday gloom at The Washington Post

The last time this happened, beginning in 2004 and lasting through the Bush Great Recession of 2007-2009, the Newhouse family media company abandoned brand new buildings in Birmingham and Mobile, Alabama, and turned its entire newspaper empire into a series of online blogs.

Related: A Memorial Day For the Daily Newspaper?

Yes, the only constant in life is change, as the philosopher once said.

The Only Constant in Life is Change

And change in our world is accelerating at an exponential rate.

On the Accelerating, Exponential Rate of Change in Society

As the World Turns

Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news again, but as the world turns, we are in for another round of change.

If you recently joined the #BoycottCNN movement because that network seemed to be moving aside all the liberal commentators who ferociously went after Donald Trump, get ready to see the very same thing at every major mainstream media organization in this country. The economic model built in the 20th century to support these behemoth companies derived its strength from covering “both sides” of the story, even when one side was full of crazy people who lie for a living.

They don’t know how they can make it any other way, so they are holding closed door meetings as we speak to try to figure out how to get past the Trump era, and find a way to quote Democrats and Republicans equally again. Their major, corporate advertisers — what’s left of them — demand it.

Even Elon Musk could not afford to lose Apple, so he made sure to contact Tim Cook and kiss his ass, even though Apple has been at war with the way Twitter and Facebook do business for awhile.

It’s one thing to publish sensational clickbait about nothing. The Seinfeld model of news. But to allow run amok hate speech and blatant falsehoods that challenge democracy itself cannot be allowed, and even Elon Musk will figure this out before it’s all over.

What’s happening there, with all this nonsense about “free speech,” is that even Twitter doesn’t think it can exist just for liberal Democrats. This is all about getting the right-wing users and audience back on the platform, just as CNN must have some of them watching too, even as most conservative Republican viewers moved to Fox a long time ago.

The New York Times can’t exist either without some access to conservative politicians, and some conservative, Republican readers. Neither can the Post.

If all the conservatives move to Fox and Truth Social, and all the Democrats move to the Daily Kos and MSNBC, what will happen to any semblance of a mainstream, sane, middle of the road America?

We might as well all find a chum and a bottle of rum and wind up drinking ourselves to death.

Jimmy Buffet was a really smart guy who was way ahead of his time.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes

Lyrics

I took off for a weekend last month just to try and recall the whole year
All of the faces and all of the places wonderin’ where they all disappeared
I didn’t ponder the question too long, I was hungry and went out for a bite
Ran into a chum with a bottle of rum and we wound up drinkin’ all night

It’s those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of our running and all of our cunning
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane

Reading departure signs in some big airport reminds me of the places I’ve been
Visions of good times that brought so much pleasure makes me want to go back again
If it suddenly ended tomorrow I could somehow adjust to the fall
Good times and riches and son-of-a-bitches I’ve seen more than I can recall

These changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
Through all of the islands and all of the highlands
If we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane

I think about Paris when I’m high on red wine I wish I could jump on a plane
So many nights I just dream of the ocean, god I wish I was sailin’ again
Oh, yesterday’s over my shoulder, so I can’t look back for too long
There’s just too much to see waiting in front of me and I know that I just can’t go wrong

With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes
Nothing remains quite the same
With all of my running and all of my cunning
If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane
If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane
If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane

___

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