This is getting off topic, but Abd ul-Rahman Lomax wrote:
Seriously, reasoning from conclusions is so common that I think it
is normal and therefore sane by definition. It is caused by
inadequate education, not mental illness.
Some forms of mental illness are quite common, especially if we
include minor manifestations. When it becomes an obsession, it
definitely impacts sanity.
This reminds of the old New Yorker cartoon of the beautician saying
to her customer "you are one of the few lucky people with normal skin."
Natural selection ensures that no widespread condition can be
pathological. Unless you are talking about a population afflicted by
the black plague, all normal functions, organs and behaviors are
healthy, by definition. Anything widespread or common is healthier
than the obverse condition. That includes debilitating conditions
such as sickle cell anemia in the black population. That is healthier
in the African environment the black population lived in.
To be sure, there are many behaviors and mental conditions that cause
problems in the circumstances of modern civilization. For example,
many children, especially little boys, have difficulty keeping quiet
sitting all day in a classroom. They are diagnosed with ADD. There is
nothing wrong with them! Children are evolved to run around outdoors
playing and learning, not to sit on their butts. Diagnosing ADD in
them is like diagnosing a Labrador retriever with a pathological
desire to swim and retrieve ducks, sticks, or anything that floats.
The kids are fine; the problem here is with modern civilization and
our absurd methods of education.
That is not to say there is no such thing as ADD, or paranoia or
other abnormal or pathological conditions. However they are rare, and
if they were not rare, we would be extinct.
To take another example, human metabolism is perfectly okay. It often
results in pathological obesity in the unnatural conditions of modern
society. Again, society is the problem, since obesity was rare as
recently as the 1960s. This problem can easily be fixed, by adjusting
agriculture subsidies for unhealthy foods, changing the layout of
grocery stores, and a few other commonsense steps. Trying to tweak
people's metabolism with drugs, or interfering in their physical
digestion with gastric bands, is a disastrously stupid approach, in
my opinion. A problem that is clearly caused by changes in
environment should be fixed by changing the environment back the way it was.
- Jed
