Madness is the non-legal word for insanity; it is a state of severe mental illness, expressed in the form of mental and behavioral patterns that violate social norms.
Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States, abolished slavery and reunited the Union and the Confederate States after a bloody civil war. He also suffered from debilitating depression.
Ludwig Van Beethoven composed Symphony Number Nine, ‘The Choral,’ one of the most beautiful musical pieces in history, and raised instrumental music to the highest plane of art. It is also believed he suffered from bipolar disorder, just like Sir Isaac Newton who, beyond his famous apple-inspired theory of gravity, invented calculus, developed the laws of motion, and built the first reflective telescope.
And then there are a few of my own heroes: Vincent Van Gogh, Tennessee Williams, and Ernest Hemingway.
Of all the madmen of history, there is one I would like to recognize today, a man I voted against. He is mentally unfit, speaks in paradoxical terms, makes up figures during speeches, divides people and unlike those that I just named is not creative, nor an intellectual and is a supremely irrational man.
As a non- thinker—he has demonstrated improper professional conduct spewing out grandiose terms systematically and ruling out others with anger and temper tantrums.
Schizophrenia first affects patients in their late adolescence or early twenties. Symptoms include visual and auditory hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thoughts.
Incurable and incapacitating, schizophrenia blurs the perception of reality and plunges a life into chaos. Worse, yet, when placed in the wrong hands it will do anything and has the power to place us in a menacing world; obliterate our democracy and pull our country into a fascist regime. This type of pathology flourishes when unchallenged by awareness or insight. A state of our current cultural climate, in particular, because many were educated to perform on tests and overlooked was reading, comprehension and analysis.
Don’t be seduced by wealth or power, both are a moral responsibility. Vote wisely.
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