You may be right, I may be crazy.

When a government (headed by people we the people elect) say and do crazy things, are their absurd behaviors a result of the individuals themselves or is it part of a larger, systemic institutional insanity that is really to blame?

If a man walks into a school board meeting, spray paints a red “V” on the wall that resembles something concocted in and by Hollywood to resemble some authentic symbol of revolution, anarchy or dissent and then goes on to shoot up the place, can we say that his instability is personal and not institutional?

When a body of law-makers votes for a war based on unverified evidence of weapons of mass destruction but everyone seems to believe there are in fact weapons of destruction, is the insanity about the individuals themselves who voted yes or about the tribal consciousness that believes that one country has the right to attack another country?

When a couple of high school kids murder their fellow students on their way to eat an unhealthy school lunch and a few miles away hums one of the largest assembly plants that builds weapons of mass destruction, is it about the personal mental illnesses of the boys or the national mental illness of the corporations, governments and voters?

If a shark appears in the Red Sea (a body of water connected to every other ocean in the world) and starts eating tourists much in the way that Jaws terrorized Amity but the Egyptian government suggests that the shark was trained by Israeli intelligence to disrupt tourism, is it about the absurd ideas of an individual who suggests it or about the culture that allows such thoughts to exist? Jaws or Jews?

“What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark (in the sea) to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm,” South Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha was quoted as saying by state news site egynews.net.

If I never had a fear of sharks until I went to see a movie called “Jaws” at a very young age, is it me that is crazy if I fear sharks and I live thousands of miles from an ocean or is it Steven Spielberg, or Hollywood, or a society that pays for tickets to see horror films, or a nature channel that airs an insatiable series called “Shark Week?”

We are so quick to label this or that person “insane” or “sociopathic” and yet we typically resist the notion that an entire way of thinking or doing can be mentally unhealthy.

I turned on the TV the other night to find Sarah Palin, a candidate for Vice President of the United States of America, teaching Kate Gosselin of “Jon & Kate Plus 8” fame (a reality show about a couple, well now a woman, with 8 kids, bad hair and an attitude) how to shoot a shot gun because they were going on a camping trip together with their kids and they might, just might, encounter a bear so they had better know how to defend their kids.

Sarah Palin, herself, is a fascinating example of how things have gotten totally insane in this country. Penelope Trunk, the Brazen Careerist, suggested that Palin is “running her career in ways I intuitively think we should all be running our careers.” Why? Because she left an elected position as governor of Alaska so she could better position herself to become president… Does that really make sense in the grand scheme of things? Or, right now, Rahm Emanuel, who left Chicago to go work for the President of the United States, is being pummeled here in Chicago, where he’d like to serve as mayor, because he left the city temporarily… Really?

That’s absurd. Isn’t it absurd? How is it not absurd? Am I crazy for thinking it is crazy? Are we all crazy? Is it just me?

I’m still afraid of sharks and I watch Shark Week every August with a fervor that deeply troubles my wife who would jump for joy if her husband would just once go diving with her (in the ocean).

One of the few times in my life that I have actually ventured into the open sea happened to have been snorkeling in the Red Sea. “There are no sharks in here, silly, it is just like a big lake,” said my buddy as we kicked our feet harder and farther, past the coral and into the oil streaks… That’s insane.