Humanity Is Insane: Difference between revisions

 

On the other hand, [[Creative Sterility|it may just]] [[Crazy Awesome|be the reason]] [[Humans Are Special]].

 

* ''[[Death Note]]'': This is pretty much the conclusion of [[Shinigami|Ryuk's]] ''[[All There in the Manual|Human Observation Journal]]'' (which he finds highly amusing.)

* In ''[[Macross Frontier]]'', {{spoiler|this was in fact the ''entire cause of the show's central conflict''. The Vajra, being [[Bee People]], didn't quite get humanity's whole 'individuality' thing, and assumed our lack of clear, unifying purpose and direction to be the result of a catastrophic breakdown of our [[Hive Mind]]. Being nice, altruistic types, they decided to rescue the being they believed to be the human [[Hive Queen]], Ranka, [[Bug War|and the rest was history]]. To their credit, though, they eventually realised their mistake, and even went as far as to sacrifice millions of their own to prevent the Frontier fleet from being obliterated by the [[Big Bad]] before offering them a place to stay on their homeworld}}.

* Semi-example in ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]''. {{spoiler|At one point Kyubey says that [[Starfish Alien|in his culture]], [[Blue and Orange Morality|emotions are considered a mental disorder]]. Although he never comes out and says this, the implication is that he and his kind view all humans as insane for having emotion. There is also an implication of [[Power Born of Madness]] from their perspective, as they are trying to turn emotions into energy.}}

 

{{quote|'''[[The Joker]]:''' Faced with the inescapable fact that human existence is mad, random and pointless, one in eight of them crack up and go stark slavering buggo! Who can blame them? In a world as psychotic as this... any other response would be ''crazy!''}}

 

* ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'': This could be why human thought is viewed as an infectious disease by some aliens. No wonder they don't want us to get our hands on a [[Universal Translator]].

* In the direct-to-DVD sequel, ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]: Hero of the Federation'', the Arachnids (or Bugs) use this as a justification for attacking and taking over humanity.

* In ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', when telling Jake he will be taught the ways of the Na'vi, Mo'at says, "We will see if your insanity can be cured."

 

* [[Values Dissonance]] can leave modern readers with the interpretation that it is the ''humans'' portrayed in the works of [[H.P. Lovecraft]] who are insane, being so fixated on a ridiculously dull, narrow-minded view of the universe that any exposure to the fact that they ''don't'' know everything there is to know about the universe and/or are not inherently gifted above even other branches of the human race causes them to end up going mad.

** This is particularly noticable when one compares straight up Lovecraft-authored protagonists to those of more "[[Sword and Sorcery]] branches" of the [[Cthulhu Mythos]], such as [[Conan the Barbarian]], where the protagonist, whilst still finding the [[Eldritch Abomination]]s to be scary, manages to take a stand at them and comes out ultimately mentally unscathed.

** Explanation: {{spoiler|the Sun is about to go nova so humans '''ALL''' got on rocket ships to find a new sun, knowing how crazy that would be. Aliens find us mid-journey. They might regret that.}}

* [[Stephen King]] is fond of this trope, as the quote shows. [[Cell]] discusses it - Clay theorizes the phone didn't drive the humans insane - it simply wiped everything out, and the psychos everywhere are simply base humans doing human things. Like stabbing everything. Another character puts it simply:

** Interestingly, Kitai says in the third book that she also thinks the Canim are insane, if not quite so insane as the Alerans. It's the convoluted internal politicking both groups engage in that she finds so irrational.

* Bruce Coville's ''[[My Teacher Is an Alien]]'' series uses this trope, which is rare for a children's story. Humans are potentially the smartest creatures in the galaxy (due to [[90% of Your Brain]]), but also the only ones stupid enough to have war and poverty. Turns out that {{spoiler|all that extra brain matter was there to grant us telepathy long in the past. When there were too many humans, there was too much "noise", and we instinctively suppressed this ability to protect ourselves}}. Losing that power left us traumatized as a species, with both an inherent desire to come together and a need to stay apart, and resulted in us being somewhat sociopathic.

* In [[David Weber]]'s ''[[Out of the Dark]]'', the invading alien Shongairi are confused and flabbergasted by humanity's continuing resistance against them even after they've killed half of Earth's population. They eventually realize that, [[Humans Through Alien Eyes|by their own standards]], humans are clinically insane. The Shongairi, being a pack-based carnivorous species, have a psychology focused on pack-mentality, with the rest of the pack submitting instinctively to the strongest "alpha" once s/he has demonstrated superiority. All other species they've encountered are herd-based omnivores or herbivores, who will submit to deflect violence away from the herd as a whole. However, humans are family-oriented instead of pack- or herd-oriented, and as a result the act of bombarding entire cities off the map and killing half the population just ''pisses them off''. Since the need to protect family overrides submission, and pure, undiluted ''hate'' due to harming or killing family drives humans to keep fighting regardless, the humans come off as completely insane to the Shongairi.

 

 

* In ''[[The Darkness]]'' [[FPS]] it's stated at one point that the Darkness, ([[Eldritch Abomination|cosmic horror, demonic force of chaos and destruction]]) wasn't originally [[Exclusively Evil|evil and crazy]] but that Humanity drove it insane. ([[Unreliable Narrator|However, this is learned in the Darkness's own realm,]] so odds of [[Mind Screw]] are high).

* The ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' franchise is stock full of these. No matter how good the intentions of its creator, Andrew Ryan, the city of Rapture delved into unethical human experimentation and chaos not long afterward (part of it caused by Ryan abusing his power). Later, Sophia Lamb and her cult following came along, hoping to eradicate the ego or self that is responsible for human evil... by forcibly experimenting on her own daughter in hopes of creating the ultimate altruistic being, deprived of free will. And in the upcoming Bioshock Infinite, where the setting takes place in a fantastic city floating in the sky constructed by the U.S. government as an icon of hope to American ideals, everything goes to shit when the city loses contact and disappears for a decade. Ironically, probably the only sane people you ever encounter is the {{spoiler|forcibly brainwashed}} protagonists.

'''Harbinger''': Inconceivable. }}

 

* Humanity is described in ''[[Buck Godot]]''

{{quote|"When Humanity joined the Gallimaufry, the first impressions of established idea sifters were rather disappointing. Yes, they were entertainingly crazy, but their quirks were mere amplifications of other neuroses and psychoses that had been in and out of vogue for millennia."}}

* On ''[[Mezzacotta]]'':

{{quote|[http://www.mezzacotta.net/archive.php?date{{=}}-1318-07-27 And I thought my species was weird].}}

 

 

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Madness Tropes]]

[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]

[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]

[[Category:Tropes of Hats]]