Lately I found from local newspapers that the city in which I live, Helsinki, has turned European. We now have nice cafeterias, small shops selling personalized items. Even better, the first Louis Vutton store has finally reached Finland. All is not perfect though. We are still eagerly waiting for the arrival of other gifts of globalization; there is no Starbucks or Burger King to be enjoyed. But despite the changes which many see as improvements I have not observed an increase in the amount of happy people, the grim urban faces still look the same.

I have also a summerhouse located in the middle of a forest in the eastern part of Finland. There I have become friends with a local family. The quality of life of this family of five is mainly dependent on the milk production of eight cows. The family is the poorest that I have met in our country yet the children are probably the happiest and energetic that I have ever seen. Sometimes I wonder why this is so. Why those who have everything always demand more whereas people with basic needs filled and without luxuries live in harmony and are often satisfied with what they have? Why I don’t live in a forest? Am I completely mad in my greedy pursuit for an academic career and with my never-ending craving for material things?

These personal thoughts surfaced again after reading Yannis Andricopolous’ book In Bed with Madness: Trying to Make Sense in a World that Doesn’t. The author has a very strong opinion, which he does not hide, that our Western culture and the way of living is indeed “mad”. Resembling a wild beast we are totally out of control. Personally I believe that anyone who has kept her eyes open for the past few decades can certainly agree with this view. The depressing facts are in and there is no need to repeat the monstrous figures here in any detail. It suffices to note that the world’s richest three hundred and eighty five people have more wealth than the poorest forty-five percent of the entire population of the earth, that McDonald’s is financially stronger than the economies Tanzania, Etiopia and Sudan together, that roughly half of the world’s scientists are engaged in research work for the military. The fact that an incredibly small percentage of the world’s population is relatively well-off and that science, in addition of threatening our existence, also benefits mankind does not change the ugliness of the overall picture of our age. If the canvas is rotten the painting is bound to have mould as well.

But what is the rotten canvas of our age, what is wrong with the very basis of our way of life? Andricopoulos sees madness dwelling essentially in the culture of modern man but also in the “system” by which he refers to the unholy alliance of science increasingly obsessed with technology and global market which blindly strives for profit without stopping to think whether the road is perhaps a road toward destruction. The author’s observations about culture and system are interesting although there is not much new information for a person who is well-educated. The remarks on culture are quite general; the notes on system I found more to the point.

 The book is not very argumentative — it is not a detailed study of contemporary culture. It is not written in an academic style, but is instead a thought-provoking work written with good style and reflecting the personal views of the author. The possible audience of this kind of book is wide but academics are perhaps too familiar with the subject because the book does not offer anything extraordinary. In Bed with Madness can nevertheless be recommended to anyone skeptical towards the Western culture who is looking for an easy book to read.  A stylistic choice which I did not find very appealing was the “name-dropping”; in the 183 pages of the book Andricopoulos manages to mention names from Abraham through Goebbels to Wittgenstein 713 times! At times the amount of names in the text results to a clumsy writing.

 According to the author, the book is written with his “whole heart and soul”. I think the book should be read as such, above else by giving material to reader’s own thought and imagination. What Andricopoulos’s book made me realize was twofold. If we follow the lead of raging form of global capitalism there is going to be no hope whatsoever. A world which is run by greed will doom us all. It is a world in which people are alienated from their work, where everything is for sale and where everything is valued in terms of profit. In this world there is no concern for the well-being of others, there is no concern for environment. It is a selfish world. Unfortunately it is also our current world. But, self-deceptive or not, I like to cherish the idea that all is not necessarily lost. In the end the perceptive pessimism of In Bed with Madness gives room for a brighter view. The challenge of modern “self-evident” culture can be overcome although the task is not easy. As Andricopoulos writes: “The challenge is not practical…it is primarily spiritual and cultural. It is a challenge for our psyche. To meet it, we need to rediscover who and what we are — indeed, what is the essence of being human.” The most important realization for me, and for any reader I believe, is that the only way out from current madness is a personal voyage which requires a crucial change in the way how we economically fortunate Western people think about ourselves and the world. There is no better time than now to start the voyage.

© 2009 Antti Kuusela

Antti Kuusela, MA, is finishing his PhD thesis in the philosophy of mind. He is also studying behavioral sciences and psychology in order to get the competence to work as a teacher of philosophy in high school. He lives in Helsinki, Finland. You can contact him through antti.o.kuusela@helsinki.fi

Keywords: popular psychology