#Sanity

Kurosawa’s Paradox of Sanity in Chaos

Kurosawa’s aphorism pivots on a paradox: when the world itself is deranged—morally, politically, or epistemically—the people who refuse to adapt can appear unhinged. In such climates, conformity masquerades as sanity while clear-sighted dissent is mislabeled as madness. Francisco Goya’s etching The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters (1799) visualizes this inversion: when reason nods off, nightmares pass for the ordinary. This framing invites a deeper question: if standards are warped, who decides what counts as sane? The line suggests that sanity may be less about fitting in and more about perceiving reality without the filters a sick society enforces. With that, we turn to Kurosawa’s own films, where characters marked as fools or obsessives often see the most clearly. [...]

Freedom: The Antidote to Life’s Lunacy

Rainer Maria Rilke’s assertion—'Freedom’s meaning is that life is not lunacy'—invites us to reconsider the true essence of being free. Rather than seeing freedom as mere lack of constraint, Rilke frames it as the force that rescues life from chaos and irrationality. This subtle redefinition shifts our focus from external liberties to the internal harmony that enables coherent, purposeful living. [...]

Wisdom Beyond Conformity: Lessons from Marcus Aurelius

Delving deeper, Stoicism teaches self-mastery and personal virtue regardless of external circumstances. Within Marcus Aurelius’s *Meditations* (c. 180 AD), he urges constant self-reflection as a shield against accepting distorted norms. By turning inward for guidance, one avoids the pitfalls of mindless obedience and instead fosters a life grounded in reasoned autonomy. [...]