Two ranters, thousands of miles apart

This man was sitting on a bench outside the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Chile in Santiago, Chile. I was too far away to hear what he was saying. It was a cool, sunny day; and most people around seemed contented, even happy. But he was obviously in a foul mood.

He reminded me of this regular at the Hung Hom East Rail train station in Hong Kong. He, too, often ranted to no one in particular. I could not quite make out what he was saying. Just that he was angry at someone for some offence. People tried to stay away from him, in the crowded station.

Both men seemed to have, sadly, lost pieces of their minds. They seemed to have lost touch with reality, and were imagining things, people, events that did not exist, or at least were no longer there.

To some extent, that happens to a lot of people, whose perception of the people and events around them seemed to have been warped. Most do not suffer as seriously as these two men, but the affliction seems similar in this respect. They are imaging injuries, insults and conspiracies where none might be intended. Such behaviour often seems associated with isolation, although I cannot be sure which is the cause and which is the effect. Perhaps a bit of both - a positive feedback cycle. In control theory, a negative feedback cycle generally tend to be stable, but a positive feedback often spins out of control.

It is scary.