God is Great, Beer is Good, and People are Really, Really, REALLY Crazy

Is it just me, or do people seems to be losing their minds more and more every day? For lack of proper scientific terms... people are BAT CRAZY! I found inspiration to write tonight after watching the video of the Jet Blue pilot losing his marbles on a plane.

I watch, read, and listen to the news multiple times a day, and Life just doesn't seem to be as simple; as enjoyable; as "normal" as it were in the "past."

But, I totally feel like an outsider looking in-- watching the circus from outside the big top. Maybe from the parking lot. Hell, maybe from across town.

I feel strong, level-headed, and a lot more normal than all the crazies walking the Earth. And I honestly think I owe a lot of my (somewhat) stoicism to the One Percent.

Let's have a lesson:

The Stoics provided a unified account of the world, consisting of formal logic, non-dualistic physics and naturalistic ethics. Of these, they emphasized ethics as the main focus of human knowledge, though their logical theories were of more interest for later philosophers.
Stoicism teaches the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions; the philosophy holds that becoming a clear and unbiased thinker allows one to understand the universal reason (logos). A primary aspect of Stoicism involves improving the individual’s ethical and moral well-being: "Virtue consists in a will that is in agreement with Nature."^[6] This principle also applies to the realm of interpersonal relationships; "to be free from anger, envy, and jealousy,"^[7] and to accept even slaves as "equals of other men, because all men alike are products of nature."^[8]
The Stoic ethic espouses a deterministic perspective; in regards to those who lack Stoic virtue, Cleanthes once opined that the wicked man is "like a dog tied to a cart, and compelled to go wherever it goes."^[6] A Stoic of virtue, by contrast, would amend his will to suit the world and remain, in the words of Epictetus, "sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy,"^[7] thus positing a "completely autonomous" individual will, and at the same time a universe that is "a rigidly deterministic single whole."

Thanks, Wiki. Well said, and let's hope, 100% credible.

But anyways, the whole point of this entry is for all of us to remember that "it could be worse." We all have the days where we throw ourselves a huge pity party. We all have the days where we want to pull our hair out, slap a co-worker, and move to a deserted island. (i.e. ME, today.) But really, how bad do we really have it compared to others?

And if you're feeling sorry for yourself, turn on the news. Put yourself in someone else's shoes who is less fortunate (or more crazy!) than you are. 

Try to keep a level head... no matter what. Be virtuous. Be the better person.

Because I think we've hit our CrAzY benchmark for a while.