Pandemic Schizophrenia

"I have played with the idea that all of humanity suffers from schizophrenia. Along with the atom, the personality of Homo sapiens has been splitting. When it comes to technology, the brain still functions, but in everything else degeneration has begun. They are all insane: the Communists, the Fascists, the preachers of democracy, the writers, the painters, the clergy, the atheists. Soon technology, too, will disintegrate. Buildings will collapse, power plants will stop generating electricity. Generals will drop atomic bombs on their own populations. Mad revolutionaries will run in the streets, crying fantastic slogans. I have often thought that it would begin in New York. This metropolis has all the symptoms of a mind gone berserk."
--Isaac Bashevis Singer. From Part 5 of his short story The Cafeteria.

PGO: The above was originally published during the "Cold War" which explains Singer's emphasis on the fear of atomophobia. Increasingly today "Climate Change" is realizing and replacing the mid 20th century fear of nuclear annihilation. Who, in 1950 would have considered that the forces of Mother Nature were a far greater impending realistic threat to life on earth than the atom bomb?

I disagree with Singer's choice of New York City as the center where the breakdown would begin. This is due to the fact that over the past several decades the intellectual caliber, quality and overrall wisdom of New Yorkers has increased tremendously as the city has flourished. I see Los Angeles as the first American city where the breakdown will explode, should it ever occur. Where do you think it would begin, and why?

On technology Singer is timely. Many of us are concerned that, as the rate of technological advancement accelerates exponentially a smash up is unavoidable. A new Dark Age? Let us hope not and let us be forewarned. One is reminded of the lyrics of a song from the 1970's on the Aqualung album by Ian Anderson: "Old Charlie stole the handle, and the train it won't stop going; no way to slow down, no way to slow down." Perhaps we are nearing the end of a technological acceleration cycle? One can now understand some of the reasoning of powerful religious leaders of the Middle Ages who sought to stifle scientific progress and "secrets which humankind should not unlock."

We have abandoned so many of the societal warnings of the 1960s and '70s.

Isaac Bashevis Singer. Copyright 1988 Nancy Crompton.