Blog6: Chapter 8 Summary

In chapter 8, Jon Ronson finds something interesting. He answers his old question. What exactly is the right kind of madness? Ronson uncovers this by first encountering Rachel North. After surviving a terrorist attack, Rachel begins blogging about the event and finds other survivors that share the same experience. However, she is soon met with conspiracy theorists that tell her on her blogs that the entire thing was a government set up to cover for a accidental power surge. Outraged, she finally goes to one of their meetings in which she sees David Shayler. Ronson is able to answer his question by the events that unfold with David's life. David use to be a MI16 spy working for the government. After releasing information of unethical actions by the secret ops, he flees and is praised by society. As it turns out, he is now a conspiracy theorist preaching his views on the 7/7 and 9/11 attacks. One day David starts talking abut his belief of the 'no planer' theory of 9/11. He says that there was never really any planes, but only hologram missiles, edited footage, and cover up interviews. This radical theorist view draws immense media attention for David, sparking his name all over the news. After this incident, he does something truly absurd by announcing that he was the Messiah. However, this drew very little media attention. After this event, David is unheard of again in the media until Ronson has one last chat with him. (conclusion inside response)

Through David's actions, Ronson finds out exactly what society looks for in the right kind of madness. Ronson agrees with David that many people are afraid they're going mad and because of this, "the right sort of mad are people who are a bit madder than we fear we're becoming.." (p211) The reason for this is because society looks toward these people as a source of comfort. Comfort in knowing that their madness is greater than theirs. This proves why David received little attention as being the Messiah, because it was something too unrecognizable for people to relate to. I think this is a very interesting thing to address because not only is it one of the parts that sows the fabric of the book together, but also because of its real life implications. It is truly amazing to sit down and really think about concepts like these for once. To think that our society and media is shaped by these mad people in which we indulge our emotions on to feel better. We as a society declare ourselves normal, but how normal can a society that feeds off the minds of the mad truly be?