I wouldn't call it a pet peeve, it's occasionally annoying or mildly amusing. People who call themselves "crazy." This much-overused self descriptor is used to achieve a few communication goals as far as I can tell. One is to confirm one's uniqueness - as in "He's crazy 'cause he has green hair." Another is to pacify potential bullies - as in "You don't want to mess with me, I'm crazy." Either of those can be interpreted as a means to get attention.
That having been said, I was expelled from fifth grade because I tried to kill a fellow student. He was making fun of me, and I could no longer tolerate being at the bottom of the pecking order. After I came back to school, needless to say, I wasn't picked on anymore. Why this radical change? Because these people respected me with equal value to their lives. I had breached a social rule, Thou shalt not attempt to kill, and with it I was granted "crazy" status. Was I crazy in a clinical sense? I think not, in retrospect.
When asked to recall why I did what I did, I fell back on a subconscious motive. "I just blanked out," I would say. Since, I have heard that repeated numerous times in reference to being "crazy." So what does that mean? When I said it, unconsciously I was saying, "It wasn't my fault, Mr. Hyde did it." It was a way of shrugging off responsibility for my very conscious and pre-planned actions. When I hear this repeated it is always uttered pre-incident, indicating the individual has already planned their insanity defense.
Should that make us fear, or respect them more, knowing they won't be held accountable for their actions? Why should someone be responsible for their own actions? We are constantly reassured by well-educated people that we are a combination of parts that we had no choice in the assembly of, and therefore we cannot be to blame. Blame it on genetics, or blame it on upbringing. What more can there possibly be to personality development?
Again I ask, why should we be responsible? Are we, in this free, western society, held accountable if we are not responsible? Let's refine this statement, it has too many possible interpretations. In law, can one not plead insanity? In economy, can one not just ride the welfare/disability system? In parenthood, can't you just shuck off responsibility to the state, or even the television? What about the anonymity that grows from a large city, or even the Internet, that allows us to silently commit "victimless" crimes? There's the religious dodge, saying that either God, or Satan is out to get you. All these are reasons to voluntarily fall short of your own, or society's goals.
I posit that we are responsible, and there is a third force to psychology. If the mind is created by upbringing and conditioning, and the body is a result of genetics, then to complete the trinity, the "soul" is creativity, and our ability to choose. If we could not be responsible for our actions there wouldn't be art, there wouldn't be technology, or inventions. There's nothing mystical about this.
So next time you hear someone say "I'm crazy," smack them across the face and tell them to get a job, or pay their child support. Because you know they are avoiding responsibility.
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