Humanity Is Insane: Difference between revisions

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Of course, [[Starfish Aliens|other species might seem just as insane to humans.]]

 

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

 

== Anime And Manga ==

* ''[[Death Note (Manga)|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 (Anime)|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.}}

 

* [[Values Dissonance]] can leave modern readers with the interpretation that it is the ''humans'' portrayed in the works of [[HP 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|Eldritch Abominations]] 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:

* There are [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|several]] [[Humans Are Warriors|ways]] [[Humans Are Cthulhu|to interpret]] ''The Damned'' by Allan Dean Foster, but in terms of tropes on this site this might be the best way to describe its portrayal of humanity. Humans evolved on a planet that shouldn't have been able to support life, in a way that shouldn't have produced a sentient species, and while as individuals we're usually decent, we display disturbing tendencies in our speech patterns and our art that are magnified when we're in large groups. We're also immune to [[Mind Reading]], with [[Too Spicy for Yog Sogoth|spectacular results]] any time it's tried.

** {{spoiler|The Lepar, normally considered the least intelligent of the fully sentient species in the Weave, are immune to the countereffect resulting from using mind reading on humans. Because the Lepar can counterbalance the negative influence of humans, humanity is finally fully integrated into the Weave.}}

* Similarly the Hegemony in [[Out of the Dark]] dismisses the human race as "insane, bloodthirsty barbarians" after witnessing the battle of Agincourt. And then the [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|Shongairi]] invade and discover that humans lack a "submission instinct"

* ''Letter to a Phoenix'' ends thusly: "Only the insane destroy themselves. And only the phoenix lives forever." All other sapient species in the galaxy grow moribund and die out, but humanity survives because it periodically comes within a hair of wiping itself out. (The near-immortal narrator still hopes we never again get as far as the civilization that planet-busted the world between Mars and Jupiter, though.)

* 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 [[Always Chaotic 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 ''[[Bio Shock]]'' 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.

{{quote| '''Shepard''': Maybe you're right. Maybe we can't win. But I'll tell you this: we will never give up. We will fight you to the last. Because that's what humans do!<br />

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

[[Category:Humans Are Indexed]]

[[Category:Humanity Is Insane]]