As an experiment, this post has a soundtrack. Hit play, set the volume to a suitable reading level, listen for a few moments, and read on:
When you look at many of the “Great” contributors of society, men and women that have made significant contributions to human consciousness, if you remove all the glory, they often seem cookier than the guy on the street yelling at no one.
A correlation between Madness and Genius seems to exist. Possibly even a causal relationship.
Greatness doesn’t come from being in the middle of the bell curve. It comes from being at the furthest tip of the curve or beyond. The problem is, escaping the middle of the curve is difficult, there is so much inertia that wants to keep you caged there. Rules, practices, traditions, genetics, governments, excuses, doubt, all these things force you back into the middle. Ultimately, escaping all these forces requires some extreme types of behavior–what we’d call deviant behavior. Behavior that steps into the realm of bizarre, maniacal, or outright wacky.
But the truth is, deviant behavior opens doors to new things. You’d think it was pretty fucking weird if all I did was eat, sleep, and throw a ball at a red fleck of paint on the wall standing 100 feet away. But, this obsession has some probability of creating an opportunity that I’ll have access to that you won’t.
This doesn’t mean being outwardly weird is a requirement for being great. Rather, this cookiness comes as a side effect. You don’t have to act like a wack-job to paint great portraits. But, the lust for something different and new and interesting and cathartic sometimes seems to seep out in other ways beyond just the primary pursuit.
So what’s the difference between a Genius and a Madman?
On the superficial level–money, power, fame. You can’t talk smack when the quivering idiot has a hand full of aces and you don’t.
But we can dive further than this. As far as I can see, there’s 2 deeper differences:
1) Context. In one context, throwing a ball at a wall all day in new and different ways could just seem outright dumb. Throwing a ball in the same manner while standing on a pitcher’s mound in a baseball game could be brilliant. If you can’t hear the music, the dancer looks crazy. And if you’re in the wrong spot, your gift can seem like a curse.
2) Adaptability. It’s possible that the genius is better able to focus his “madness” in ways that are more beneficial. The genius is able to find his way to the edge where madness bears gifts, no matter the Context.
These aren’t mutually exclusive, and likely, it’s some sort of co-evolutionary process.
But, if I were to choose the one that really matters, I’d choose Context.
This may be the product of my biased view of the world that everything comes from the expression of our internal state. Every action we take is an expression–whether we like it or not. If you’re controlled by your lowest desires, you become a despicable brute. If your head is empty, you’ll be controlled by the contorted thoughts of dictators–something must fill your mind, and it will be filled for you if you don’t.
And when I look at great people, I see their internal state coming out loud and clear. They’re clawing towards where they’re compelled to go–driven by intense pain or pleasure or both. They’re doing what they do and spend their lives trying to get to where they can do more of it. As far as I can tell, they didn’t change themselves. They found their own way to their ray of light.
So maybe the primary difference really is just Context. But then does it boil down to luck of birth? where you’re born and when?
Sure, that has something do with it. But I have this insane belief that people are stronger than circumstance, and that, metaphorically speaking, Alchemists and Wizards and Ubermen exist, and I think that’s the right belief to hold. Great physicists and writers escaped terrible prisons in the middle of Siberia so that they could be united with their craft. How many great phsysicists or writers died in the same process, we’ll never know. But the belief that we’re strong creates a probability of success.
So maybe this post boils down to these two thoughts:
a) If you’re a Madman, and if you believe you are strong, keep moving until you find yourself in the right place.
b) If you’re just an average joe, be glad you’re not a Madman, love your stable environment, kick back, enjoy the show the Madmen will provide, and hope it doesn’t destroy your world.
-Kevin
1.27.2012
