Halloween Crazy - Epilogue

St. Mary of Bethlehem was a monastery and unofficial hospital in London, officially made an insane asylum by King Henry VIII (one of his more rational acts) in 1547. Based on the best of intentions, the place, the practice, and the name degraded quickly. Within months, it was being called Bedlam. Yes, that Bedlam. From which we get the word now used to describe crazy chaos. But it was worse than that.

There is evidence that any patients considered harmless were forced to beg. Most patients were considered inmates and treated like - or worse - than animals. Many were shackled and chained just inches from cell walls. Active and violent patients were put on display like a circus sideshow to the public for a penny. Cells had no furniture and were never cleaned. Patients were fed with a bowl on the floor when and with what was convenient. There was no provision for warmth or clothing. There were legitimate lunatics mixed in with sane people with behavioral changes from any number of ailments such as concussions or epilepsy, but everyone received the same treatment(s).

The folks at Bedlam had no excuse for their treatment of patients. They can't even claim ignorance, not when effective treatment methods for many disorders had been known for hundreds of years. No, the only reason they did what they did is because the local culture expected it. Maybe demanded it. Definitely paid to see it. Keep in mind, this was a time and place and type of society where people had picnics and watched hangings or beheadings or other public executions. Going to see the crazies would've been a pleasant amusement.

We'd like to consider ourselves much more civilized. How smug. Yet within our own time and place and type of society, we have people speaking out against cosmetic surgery while spending thousands of dollars on deep piercings and horn implants and other "body modification." (Wait, isn't that just a euphemism? Why yes, yes it is.) Oh yes, we've come so far, haven't we? Even at the worst times of Bedlam's history, wearing things as clothes that were never meant to be (meat dresses, anyone?) would've been recognized as a sign of mental illness.

Now we don't even bother. And because of our apathy, genuine cries for help have to be louder and weirder to get our attention. Can't compete with the showiness? Too bad. Post your suicide via live feed to YouTube and you'll get views. Your friends will post the link on their Facebook pages and get a million likes when you're gone.

So tell me truly now, and please consider the ramifications; which scares you more: that people in a group (or entire society) can be just as mentally unbalanced and dangerous as any psychopath, or the fact that they just doesn't give a damn?



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