Feeling the Beautiful Madness: Villianizing Our Freedom

Written by Compassion Chidozie

“Aestheticism may not be the preferred concept that solves the unworthiness used in describing what beauty entails; ‘beauty,’ in its form and shape has a cross-cultural embellishment registered in the mind of the performer.” -Compassion Chidozie (2024).

First, the above quote informs the connection between this essay and the readers. Following this line of thought, we may not be abhorred; beauty, madness, and freedom – how have they become the umbilical cord that steers the conversation on everything we hold so esteemed? I will be honest in my opinion, hoping that you are convinced too. Permit me to say that nobody enjoys freedom in the truest sense of freedom. But is there any correlation between beauty, madness, and freedom?

Second, this is a question: have we noticed that in a world that is constantly on the move, nobody is actually free?  The first and second questions may be similar but distinct from each other. They are interactive and facilitate human connection. The causality that enveloped our daily lives, daunted our livelihoods, and paraphrased the little space we occupied was a product of the ‘past life’ we did not participate in shaping. A universe we met through the ‘unionistic’ sharing in our mother’s bellies.

This could be (wittingly) understood from how the alarm clock awakens us in the morning, which implies that everyone seems to be living in the same pattern inherited from past generations, cramped with invisible ‘chains’ — always in a rush, at the same time moving nowhere. We are submissive to the arousing patterns of subsistence, such as working to earn, acquiring educational qualifications, and vocational (apprenticeship) training to feel ‘belong’ in a world that is running against our wishes. These signify that nobody is entirely free, and that we may not have truly left the “ slave ships.” There are invisible ‘slave chain’ tied to our psychology, restricting us from identification. The slave chain means the state apparatus in conjunction with the eclipse of ‘potentiation’ that we remarkably embrace.

We feel it every day, we are unconsciously aware, but we are too weak to call a shot because the feeling is a conundrum of beauty and comfort. The choices we have are limited (that is, if they exist), and sometimes, I wish I could serve as a tool for causative impulses that would rewire this structural pattern to create multiple choices. When choices are available it opens doors for speculation. For instance, living a lifestyle where you won’t be judged as “lazy” for staying home without doing anything. Tellingly, this essay is not an invitation to laziness, mind you.

Linguistically, beauty and madness are distinct from each other and are also opposite verbally and meaningfully. However, the meaning of psychological breakdown might suggest showing up in a different way rather than what is popular to us. Could we feel the calmness these two words employ while using them to make a sentence? We described a mentally retarded person as “madness” not considering his intention. This could be his choice – to ‘act’ differently and behave in a way unknown to our perceptibility.

There is no special language required in explaining the truth and examining justice. It comes from the inner conviction that seeks facts and realities. An Igbo adage says, “Pregnancy cannot be covered with a hand.” We feel rewarded to see ourselves become the arbiters of truth in a hierarchy that promotes our judgment and maintains a circus in the “upper deck.”

The exuberance that surmised our interrogation of the dot-connecting beauty, madness, and freedom is an invitation to the ethos of the anthropocene. It shivers the unstacked culmination and disturbs the essence of freedom. We are shaped by our thoughts, discarded by our spirituality, and raised through the ashes of wholesomeness. Freedom, like an attorney, lacks immunity to disapprove its life sentencing. It is not a locatable district. However, if we are intentional about freedom, we must locate the aesthetic parameters in the “busy mobilities” by villainizing the fabrics of openness.

Image Description: Saint Cecilia. Source: Anthony Bagget via Dreamstime.com