THE SANE ASYLUM
Separating the insane from
the general public has been done since the twelve century. Along with debtors prisons Insane Asylums
(also known as Lunatic Asylums) have had
the fearful image of a place where a person could become lost from society and
dwell in a psychotic hell on earth the remainder of life.
The most iconic of insane
asylums is Bedlam in London
- if you entered you were likely to never return. Perhaps more familiar is the lunatic asylum
run by Dr John Seward where Renfield ate spiders and flies while he waited for
Dracula.
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| Francisco Goya's The Madhouse |
Up through the 20th
century asylums separated the insane from the general public; but now, in the
21st century we find the demographics changing. Crazy has become the new norm. The
sane – the logical – the critical thinkers are a dwindling minority and it
seems beyond practical capability to house the nut cases; so, I propose that we
establish Sane Asylums.
We could take over libraries,
museums, and art galleries. We could
restrict cell phones, i-pods, video games, computers, radios and televisions
(perhaps allowing PBS radio and TV broadcast and the occasional BBC
production.) It would be a place of
sanity. It would be a place where people
would actually talk to each other. There
could be discussions on science and literature; but never on politics or
religion. And in the antithesis of
asylums of yore we could lock out the crazies.
It is just a thought
the Ol’Buzzard
