We see, first, the complete loss of a sense of measure in everything (and note that this is nearly always something temporary and passing that seems like the work of some evil power). There is an urge to go beyond the limit, an urge for that sinking sensation one has when one has come to the edge of an abyss, leans halfway over it, looks into the bottomless pit itself, and--in some particular but not infrequent cases--throws oneself headlong into it like a madman. We see this urge for negation in a person who may be the most inclined toward belief and reverence--the urge to negate everything . . .Fyodor Dostoevsky in "Vlas" from A Writer's Diary, vol. 1.
(pg 161 of the Northwestern U Press edition).
What else might so succinctly explain Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Glenn Beck, Christine O'Donnell, Joe Miller and the countless examples of political brinkmanship, these players of a particularly dangerous game of chicken who are determined to race head-long to and collide head-on with the madness that so attracts them?
