“Troy, do you think we are insane?” Charlie asked out of the blue.
“What?” Troy could not help but blurt out, having not expecting any words to be exchanged between them for some time. Idling in his own thoughts might have screwed his perception of the passing time though… “What did you say?”
“Do you think we are insane,” Charlie said, repeating his statement from before. Having heard it again, the younger of the two could concretely say that he had no idea where this was coming from. The weirder topic usually first started a long way into their talks, as if not to scare anybody away from the start.
And… insanity. An unstable mind. Troy might have been a little unstable in his head, during the last few days. Comments about screws getting looser and looser, thoughts about non-existing genocides and a very dedicated intro perspective view had been getting more frequent as of late. Yet that was likely just another phase of self-realisation. It was not a rarity, heavily documented by those who had nothing better to do with their sad lives. In conclusion…
“No,” Troy answered after some thought on the matter. “I think we are as normal as we can possibly be.”
Charlie laughed at the response, seeming to have found it funny for whatever reason. Troy could not find the joke but was sure it was a good one, as the muscular man could not contain himself for a whole three seconds after it got a little awkward.
“'Normal,`” Charlie said, with revulsion to the very word itself. “From the way you talk of such things, you clearly can't see how little it answers my question.”
“Indulge me, then,” Troy replied. With such an intriguing lead-up, why not hear five minutes filled with such filth? And as little as he wanted to admit it, having some form of discussion while walking would be a smidge less boring than walking without it. “What is it that I do not understand?”
“Normality does not equal sanity. Nor does either cause the other. Some people might refuse the truth, but neither is related to the other in any way,” Charlie said, spouting things that Troy found hard to believe. Yet again, he was one of those people described. A small part of him felt that such details were meant to be there, meant to be looked at discomfitingly.
That kind of talk was the way of the master. The master of words! Anybody could bear that title, as long as they had a semi-decent way to annoy the heck out of Troy through verbal discourse. After all, he was the only one able to give such a title, as he was the only one who would similarly acknowledge it. It was therapeutic in a way, making long, overdrawn tags to put onto people. Troy had originally thought the free, online therapist to be spouting nonsense, but it had actually worked in letting him stop some of the more cutting remarks of coming out. An altered happy place, where everybody was just as stupid as he imagined them to be, bearing their equally dumb titles with the pride of an inept lion.
“Mind coming up with something more convincing, perhaps?” Troy questioned. He did not even consider the chance of Charlie being unable to, but skipping ahead in the speech would allow some of the more interesting words to come forth. Maybe some political revolution, centred around the need for fewer oranges in daily life? Was this Troy’s way to interrupt the program, just so he could annoy the other man, and make things slightly more irritating for him? One could never know. Except for Troy, who very definitely knew he was doing just that. “Maybe an overbearing example, that will turn out to be something else at the end? Those are always fun.”
A glance was put in a certain person’s way. It was gleeful, happy that some good comebacks were actually happening! With time, there could truly happen a feisty revolt, based on the things which were going unneeded. The seeds still needed time to grow, but when they did… oh when they did, it would be a time most pleasant. Charlie would undoubtedly enjoy it the most, though, knowing just who helped it begin. Or he would be dead by then, having told a joke just a bit too loudly. It could happen to anybody, for without such chances it was not fun at all.
“A bit witty with our tongues today, are we? No matter. Do with what you own as your free will dictates,” Charlie asked suspiciously. “You wanted an example? I will gladly provide it, while only wishing you request such things sooner. Completely remaking my glorious speeches comes not from an easy life, I tell you! It is only through my own goodwill, that I entertain these wishes of yours.”
“Then do it,” Troy encouraged, clearly seeing how much Charlie was trying to delay the inevitable. He would not be letting it go.
“I will!”
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“Then start.”
“I am!” Charlie loudly proclaimed, clearing his throat just as loudly to stop another one of the retorts. By that point, a general idea had luckily been formed from the scraps of the former outline. If played correctly, the posadist-loving man should have been able to glide through with little to no hardships. “Look at the average person. Can you call this man sane or insane? He is most certainly not sound of mind. This might sound insane to say, and certainly troubling as it comes from my own mouth, but this is more than a simple subjective opinion. To take the words from man slightly ahead of the curve, 'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.` The statement is simple. Expecting different things for the same action is irrational, a perfect attribute to put next to an insane man of any degree.
Let us take a look back at the average joe. Taking a positive outlook to start with, this persona has likely done average in school, scoring himself an just as average life. He has an average apartment with average furniture inside set up in an average way. When he goes out, he does average things, such as doing his average job. He goes on with his average life doing average things with only the last end in sight. Why does he do them?”
It took Troy a few seconds before he realised that he was being asked a question. Normally, he would take no part in the longer speeches, only being subject to the witnessing part. Being put on the spot like this was… not as bad as he thought.
“Because… he likes doing it?” Troy said, not being too convinced of his own words.
“Why do you sound so unsure about your answer? Do you not believe it yourself?” Charlie question. As the reaction being sought did not come immediately, the older of the two pressed on, not letting the steam escape.
Troy did not really want to acknowledge Charlie's words as true, but neither did he want to stay silent. Therefore, offering yet another counter-point seemed the only good way forward.
“Hope, then,” Troy answered, putting a hand forward as if presenting a physical gift on his palm. There was nothing but air, but he did make Charlie look down for a second. That was counted as a win. “The average person would do them because he would think he would gain something better.”
“A seismic shift from what you said before,” Charlie noted with a grin, being happy to lay someone so well. “The average person continues their average life, in the hope that they will get out of the average because of it. They keep doing average things, expecting from something other than average results. Average does not create the abnormal. It is the mass of abnormality that causes the average to exist.
Is it sanity that is the driving force behind the hope, that things will get better? That stuff will change into something other than it was before. A change which is so radical that it will change their life in entirety. What do you think, Troy? Will enough average actions equal an abnormal life?”
Inclusion was most definitely on Charlie’s mind. Troy was sure of it, with how much he was being asked. He was more prepared this time even, knowing within that he would be forced to bring another point to the table. Hopefully, he would bring something that would come out of the expected, to momentarily delay the speech looking to have already been prepared. Nobody would mind bearing witness to such a spectacle.
“Enough actions can bring growth in many ways,” Troy started off his argument with. “It can be mental maturity, social connections starting to be a complete network, and monetary gain gathered from many hours working. All those can be used to develop the person in many ways, which some can see as abnormal. So, yes, enough average actions can certainly bring abnormality in the lifestyle.”
The furthering stages of happiness shown on Charlie’s face were not appreciated, no such emotion being on Troy’s. Having worked hard, he did not understand why it did not produce the result he had hoped it would. Had the other planned well or had he planned extensively?
“Money, social plays, and mental growth, eh? Sounds solid. A good point that will surely prove the average person to be capable of the abnormal!” Charlie announced. “But… is it not every average person that gains these things? With each of them having a job to their names, would they not all gain money? Would they not all gain friends along the way? Would they not all learn from their mistakes?
Every action that the average person takes, a thousand is doing the same at the same moment, a thousand will do it in the next second, and a billion has done it many times before. Growth is average when every average person can do it. Nothing new is ever done. The background might change over time, but the core has not deviated for many years. The new phone that will set everyone apart, spending their savings to stand out of the crowd, only to be grouped together with a million others who thought the same.
Their thoughts are the same. Their actions are the same. And… the results are the same. Does the average person acknowledge this? Do they change their average actions because of it? No. For they can not comprehend that they are average, thinking themself the only one unique amongst the crowd.
They do the same thing again and again, expecting something different to happen. Is that not insane, Troy?”
Troy was not sure what to say. A good set-up, decent middle-part, and a conclusion he could not in any way agree with. Not because it was badly explained. He understood the points perfectly. It was more along the lines of… denial? Yeah, that did fit perfectly.
“Charlie,” Troy began his answer off with. “Are you calling us average?”
“Why would you come to that idea?” Charlie asked, with an obviously staged raising of his right eyebrow. The man did not even try to act out our confusion.
“Your whole speech was started off by you asking if I thought we were insane. And then you talk about how the average population is insane by living their lives normally. You can't really call it outlandish than I am drawing very obvious threads between those two lines,” Troy said, bringing the point into the light.
Charlie snorted loudly.
“That is weird of you to say, Troy,” Charlie said. “I think that the two of us are perfectly unique in this world of average people. Would you not say so yourself?”
“I actually listened to that speech of yours, you know,” Troy said, not answering the question asked. “That trap isn't going to catch me today.”
“It might, some other day,” Charlie mumbled, before going back to his normal voice. “If you listened to me fully, then you just might be insane. Listening to the blabberings of those not well in the mind, and taking their words as truth? How irritational of you.”
…
Oh, for fu-
“Well… then again. Who needs convincing that the man who talks to the voice in his head is insane?” They walked in silence again. Troy would have preferred a political revolution.