They're Crazy
Reflecting on the crazy/normal distinction in current political debate.
Be careful that you don’t fall into this trap, calling the ideas that you can’t get your head around “crazy.”
Yes, they might be. Actually, many ideas that you do understand may also be flawed (another way of saying “crazy?”). But why use a negative label? Just say you don’t understand why others find them reasonable.
And perhaps reference Einstein who found some ideas associated with quantum theory unbelievable. He did, however, often change his mind.
It’s alright to doubt and question new ideas. Many are likely to be flawed. Crazy!
But some are valuable insights. Lazy minds are drinking margueritas on many sunny beaches. New ideas require serious thought, maybe long walks to isolated places. Some people are up for it. They have sharpened their minds on tough questions and nuanced thinking. And they still may sound “crazy.”
They don’t fall into the trap or “flipping off” ideas that seem “crazy,” to them, nor do they retreat to the old orthodoxies.
Remember that for many of us orthodoxy is how we get ready for “show time.” And in a politics where performance is the ticket to media access and public approval, the “show” too often is all that it is about.
Even the best of us are likely to succumb to intellectual laziness and pin the label “crazy” on the hard stuff of thought.
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Ideas? What ideas?