Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I

Hear, O seeker of truth, the bold and piercing words of John Lennon: “Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.” These words, half in jest and half in anguish, carry the fire of a prophet’s cry. For Lennon, who lived in the storms of the twentieth century—an age of war, revolution, and upheaval—saw with clarity the contradictions of a world that called itself civilized while racing toward destruction.

To say society is run by insane people is to unveil the madness of leaders who pursue power at the expense of humanity. Wars are waged not to defend but to conquer. Economies are built not to nourish but to consume. Policies are written not to uplift but to dominate. Lennon, who spoke against the Vietnam War and the nuclear arms race, saw clearly that much of what was called “progress” was in truth a march toward annihilation. The objectives were insane because they ignored the sacred value of life itself.

Consider the time of the Cold War. Nations armed themselves with enough nuclear fire to burn the earth many times over, each side claiming this was the path to safety. The leaders called it deterrence, but to Lennon and many others, it was madness—spending fortunes to prepare for the end of the world. Meanwhile, children starved, the poor languished, and voices of peace were mocked as naïve. This is what Lennon meant: that sanity in such a world was not found in the halls of power, but in the courage to question it.

Think also of the story of Galileo Galilei, centuries earlier. He dared to declare that the earth moved around the sun, a truth plain to reason. Yet for speaking it, he was threatened with prison and silenced by force. To tell the truth was to be branded mad, while those who clung to ignorance called themselves wise. Lennon echoes this ancient struggle: when truth is spoken against power, it is often truth itself that is declared insanity.

Yet, O listener, do not hear only despair in his words. For within Lennon’s cry is also a challenge. If the world is indeed ruled by the insane, then the task of the wise is not to conform, but to resist. To refuse to accept destruction as destiny. To refuse to call cruelty necessary. To refuse to bow before leaders whose goals are maniacal. Sanity, in such an age, becomes an act of rebellion—a refusal to live by lies.

The lesson is this: measure the sanity of society not by the words of its rulers, but by the condition of its people. Ask: does this path lead to life or to ruin? Does this policy uplift or degrade? Does this action heal or destroy? If the answer is destruction, then the so-called sane are truly insane, and the so-called insane may in fact be guardians of truth.

So I say to you, O child of tomorrow: do not be afraid if the world calls you mad for speaking truth. History is filled with those who bore the scorn of their age only to be remembered as its true voices of wisdom. In your heart, hold fast to love, to justice, to peace. Let your “madness” be the sanity that future generations will call wisdom. For as Lennon reminds us, the true insanity lies not in questioning madness, but in living silently beneath it.