(June 1, 2017 at 12:30 am)Bunburryist Wrote: Technology provides opportunities to behave anonymously that never existed before. It also makes it easier to interact with people who don't know you and will never know you.
The internet also provides both many examples of how to be weird (that probably would never occur to the average person otherwise), and through constant exposure hardens us to behavior that fifty years ago (when married couples in TV had to have separate beds) would have shocked even the most jaded of people. As for terrorist groups enticing members - before cable - when in most places there were maybe 5 major channels on TV - there simply was no way for wacko groups to have a chance to entice you into anything without walking up to you and handing you a pamphlet. Isis would have been inconceivable fifty years ago. The average terrorist group had a handful of people, or maybe in the tens. Travel is a lot easier now as well. And not just in the practical sense. People think much more "long distance" than they used to. 1965 and you want to talk to your fellow Jihadi if Kabul? Well, long distance cost like, I don't know, maybe $15 a minute. And that was when you could buy a candy bar for a dime. I know this makes me sound old, and this is the kind of stuff my parents used to say, but young people today really can't imagine what it was like fifty years ago.
I think we need to define crazy. What you (and maybe some others) are describing is not the result of a endogenous mental illness but more from mental manipulation. This includes manipulation for religious and political reasons/purposes.
As for the mental illness crazies, yeah, you're going to hear about them more because keeping the potentially dangerous confined and away from interacting with society long term was pretty much done away with in the late 70's and 80's (for various reasons). Keeping them confined was seen as cruel because they did not always receive the best care and also seen as not cost effective. Now, as soon as they are considered stable they are released asap, maybe to early, maybe with inadequate follow up monitoring. While their violent acts are rare, when they occur and are considered news worthy we hear about it.
So, if the potentially dangerous mentally ill are going to be released into society, they are going to have access to some of the dangerous/lethal elements that exist in society.
Providing them adequate care in light of societies wishes becomes a delicate balancing act.
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental.
