A mad man and the world around

A very disturbing thought peeped through my mind with its concern to human response to human. In other words, pertaining to human relationship.

Viktor Frankl observed the problems that we face today. He classifies three kinds of people;

Some people fall into the category of the planless day. This is because frankl says was the effect of the World Wars. In the World Wars Especially within the concentration camps, the weariness of the routine way of life made the people passive and irresponsible. They were acted upon and had no freedom of choice. In this category, people shirk the responsibility of planning ahead and making life meaningful.

The second set of people, Frankl speaks about belongs to the collectivistic mentality. People lose their individuality, when they identify themselves with the group. In the concentration camps, people were given a number and counted as one among the crowd. Today too, we can see many people having lost their individuality for having identified themselves with the crowd.

The third set of people belongs to the fanaticism. These people do not have an identity without their group; neither do they recognize the individuality of other persons.

Connecting the above, what immediately comes to my mind is the phrase from a novel ‘farewell to arms’ in which sweet heart of the hero says, “I feel lonely in the crowd”. Do we really feel lonely in the crowd? Yes, of course. That is the reason I titled this article as ‘a mad man and the world around’. Just suppose a man, living in a community of good persons. The relationship among them may be very superficial, in a way just few words of ‘hai’, ‘how are you?’ etc. Do you find any genuine relationship in superficiality and senseless words? In no way. Take for example an instance in which a normal person makes an expression more than usual. The other people might turn him down as a mad man/ gone out of his head. Hence, his expression of normalcy becomes an expression of Madness. I have had an experience similar to this fashion. I was not understood as a madman, but rather a boy who really went out of his head started behavig strangely. And his friends around him did not know what to do about his situation. Did he make his life on his own? Or was he influenced by the traits that he inherited? WE cannot ignore that fact of being influenced, but what we can do is the stand we take towards it.

What have we to do with regard to human relationship in the face of indifference, coldness and senseless words? WE can bring about changes only in the attitudinal level and accept the unalterable situations. Find the meaning of every moment as and when it unfolds itself. Act responsible while being aware of our responsibleness and our innermost ability to find meaning (the will to meaning).