are all humans insane?

by nick nelson

humans tell stories. they tell stories in order to “make sense” of the world. a story is a pattern the human brain imposes on the data it receives from the world outside itself. the “sense” that the story makes seems to be necessary to the human in order to function in the world. how accurate are stories in describing the world the human exists in? i would say they are completely inaccurate - that they have no relation to the real world at all. humans live in two worlds - the physical world in which they are born, survive for a while, and then die - and the mental worlds of language and stories. “insane” and “schizophrenic” are two words that humans use to describe the mental states of some of their fellows. they are words that might be used to describe all humans, given the disconnect between their physical and mental lives. what makes a story and how are they different from humans’ physical lives? for convenience, i will refer to humans’ physical lives as “real life”. stories have beginnings. stories are self-contained. everything in real life is connected to an infinity of other things, each of which is connected to an infinity of other things… everything, or almost everything in stories is determined by motive, usually the motive of an individual human being. everything in real life is determined by circumstances, circumstances which are incalculable. and this only includes circumstances which humans can comprehend. there may be, almost certainly are, all sorts of circumstances beyond human perception or conception. stories express the basic fantasies/dreams of humans, in which people are "free" (or not) and have "power" (or do not). and, usually, are “good” or “bad”. or “ignorant” or “enlightened”. above all, stories have endings, resolutions. something happens “in the end”. everything in the story leads up to “the end”, and “the end” casts its light back on the events leading up to it, either justifying them, or putting them in a “tragic “ or “ironic” light. in stories, except in a few “ironic” or “experimental” ones (which only a handful or humans compose or read) nothing “just happens”. nothing happens because of an infinite (and therefore indescribable) series of connected events. even in stories where things “just happen” - there is often an “ironic” undercurrent - look how stupid/greedy/evil these humans are, how much better would things be if they were enlightened/generous/selfless…. in stories bad people have bad motives and they perform bad actions which have bad consequences. and they are stopped - and can only be stopped - by good people who have good motives and perform good actions that have good consequences. if goldfinger or professor moriarty are being pursued by james bond or sherlock holmes they have to be stopped by bond or holmes - they can't just slip and fall off the side of a mountain. these are the great majority of stories, that people listen to or read. two subsets of stories that might be considered different are “romance” stories, and pornographic stories. but in both there are “winners”. in the romance stories the female protagonist “wins” (and lives happily ever after) by ensnaring and taming a desirable mate. in the simpler pornographic stories, the protagonists (usually male) win, not “ever after” but in the moment by … you get the idea…