the latest edition

 So now it seems we are going to adopt the attitude of "I don't feel like it." That is being called mental health these days. What I mean is someone says they don't feel like they want to behave in a certain fashion, conform to societal norms, or comply with various laws, regulations, codes or whatever, and the rest of us are supposed to accept that. We are supposed to empathize and support those behaviors! Additionally, if I am acting out, the police are supposed to determine my mental state before attempting to arrest, apprehend, or control my actions. You know if I'm wielding a knife or a machete or maybe a Samuri sword the police should ask questions first, call in a mental health expert to determine if I'm dangerous or just a nut! It's okay to be a nut as long as you don't harm others, that's the new thinking. You have to check the DSM. The DSM is the (Diagnostical and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders) that the experts use. It does get revised every now and again. What was once a mental issue may or may not be today. Being Transgender used to be a mental disorder, today the experts say, that's fine. A guy that thinks he's a woman and dresses like that is just fine. Hey, we have them in high position of government these days. It's all good. It's just what they feel like, and you can't say anything about that. 

 I'm not saying people don't have mental illness, they certainly do. I am saying that I believe I lot of folks are starting to use that as an excuse, it being a condition we can't see. When I was in the service back pain was the "go to" excuse. They can x-ray, cat scan, or whatever but they can't tell you your back doesn't hurt. Knew a few that used that excuse quite often to get out of work and at least one to get out of the service! There was no way to disprove his claims. It's the same with all this "mental" anxiety, stress, and fear so many claim to have today. So many walking around with their "emotional support" animals and stuff like that. When you normalize a mental illness guess what, more people will have it! In the last decade there has been a significant increase in pre-teen and teenagers identifying as gay. Gee, wonder why that is? Couldn't be because it's the in thing, the cool thing now could it? Everyone is doing it. I remember when a lot of kids were growing long hair and wearing bell bottoms for the same reason! The research shows that the majority of those pre-teens and teens later decide they are heterosexual. Yes, that a fact too. I know a lot of long haired, bell-bottomed wearing guys that got a haircut and wear slacks today. 

 Now this DSM is just a tool used by the mental health experts to diagnosis, statistically speaking, what is considered a mental disease. I think the term "disease" is falling out of favor these days as it sounds bad. In my opinion the whole book is just a list of what is considered socially acceptable and what is not. No other way to explain why the "diseases" would change. Can a disease be a good thing? I'm thinking no, and that is why it has to be removed from the book. An illness however is always treatable. That's why we are calling it mental illness. There is hope for recovery. If it is a "disease" that means it can't be cured, there is no hope for recovery. It can't be labeled an illness because illness implies it can be cured. As a result, it must be called normal and socially acceptable behavior. It was quite a socially acceptable thing to be a headhunter too, in fact, a cultural requirement. Well, it's a cultural thing, isn't that the response? Culture is also being used as an excuse today. But I won't go into that. 

 The simple fact of the matter is this. People will pretty much behave whatever way they are allowed to behave. There are those that will be different, those that display aberrant behaviors. The society determines what is acceptable and what is not. When the society decides that something is unacceptable it will be labeled one of two ways. Criminal or mental. If the mental condition can be corrected, we might say they have an illness, and you can't fault a person for having an illness. In the past we created "hospitals" that attempted to cure all sorts of criminal behaviors, along with socially unacceptable behaviors. Back then it was a mental disorder or disease. We couldn't fix everyone no matter how many drugs and procedures were applied. That system just didn't work out well at all. Today it takes a bit more to be committed. You have to be a danger to society or to yourself. We have a much greater array of drugs to control behaviors these days. How do we determine when to use drugs or therapy? When to commit. We use the DSM. The real issue is in determining whether the person is dangerous, especially to society. Is that danger solely causing physical harm to others? That would seem reasonable on the surface of things, but what other dangers does a society face? What causes a society to collapse? 

 A leading cause is foreign invasion. With foreign invasion the old societal norms are replaced with new ones. The old society collapses. Resource depletion is also a leading cause of collapse. We are facing that right now in America. Natural calamities can also be the cause, think the plague. The black death almost wiped-out European nations. And yes, man himself can cause the collapse as well. Nuclear war would certainly alter everything. All of the above replace societal norms with the new normal, the new society. The DSM receives an update, a new edition.