The Insane Society: Modernity’s Descent into Madness and Dehumanisation, By James Reed

In his March 18, 2025, Substack post, Michael Snyder lists "10 Signs That a Significant Portion of the Population is Starting to Lose Their Minds," painting a vivid picture of a decaying society, using the US as a case study, but similar things are seen across the West, unravelling at the seams.

https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/10-signs-that-a-significant-portion

From road rage spiralling into deadly shootouts to parents murdering children over trivialities like video game losses, Snyder's examples—drawn from recent U.S. headlines—signal a collective psyche buckling under modern pressures. But these are not mere anecdotes; they are symptoms of a deeper insanity gripping modernity, a dehumanising force that Erich Fromm might have diagnosed anew if he penned The Sane Society today. In 1955, Fromm argued for a society aligned with human needs—connection, creativity, reason. In 2025, we'd retitle it The Insane Society, a damning reflection of a world that's traded sanity for chaos and humanity for mechanised alienation.

Snyder's first sign—a surge in road rage escalating to murder—sets the tone. He cites a March 2025 Georgia case where a driver shot another over a lane change, killing a father in front of his family. This isn't just anger; it's a breakdown of restraint, a primal snap echoing across freeways nationwide. Everytown Research pegs road rage shootings at 500 annually pre-2020, but by 2025,local news suggest a spike—hundreds dead in a year from what should be petty disputes. Modernity's pressure cooker—endless traffic, economic stress, and a culture of entitlement—turns humans into ticking bombs, stripped of empathy. Fromm's "sane" society prized mutual respect; ours revels in rage, dehumanising victims into obstacles.

The insanity scales up with Snyder's second point: violent crime's resurgence. He notes a 15-year-old in Goldsboro, NC, executed for $10 and a vape pen in March 2025—a life snuffed out for pocket change. FBI stats show violent crime dipping post-2022 but ticking up again by late 2024—murders in cities like Chicago and Philadelphia outpacing 2023. This isn't mere desperation; it's a chilling devaluation of life, where a child's worth is measured in trinkets. Modernity's obsession with consumption—amped by social media flexing—reduces people to their possessions, a dehumanisation Fromm warned of when capitalism unmoors from human purpose.

Snyder's third sign—parents killing kids over absurdities—cuts deeper. A Georgia mother stabbing her 5-year-old for wetting the bed, a father beating his son to death over a gaming loss—these March 2025 cases scream a loss of parental instinct. Child abuse deaths hover around 1,800 annually (CDC, 2023), but such visceral brutality feels newly unhinged. Modernity's isolating tech—screens over bonds—frays family ties, while economic strain (rents up 30 percent since 2020, per ABS) and mental health neglect (waitlists for therapy stretch months) turn homes into pressure valves. Fromm's sane society nurtured love; ours breeds monsters, dehumanising even the defenceless.

Expanding beyond Snyder, technology accelerates this madness. His tenth sign—mass hysteria over trivialities like a Subway worker's penny-pinching—hints at it, but the scope is vaster. Algorithms on X and TikTok amplify outrage, with 2025 seeing viral meltdowns over everything from fast-food errors to celebrity tweets. A 2024 study (Nature) pegged social media as doubling anxiety rates since 2010; by 2025, it's a mental health shredder, reducing users to reactive husks. AI chatbots replace friends, VR porn outpaces relationships—human connection erodes, leaving a society of ghosts staring at screens. Fromm's "automaton conformity" is here, but turbocharged: we're not just cogs, we're data points, dehumanised by code.

Economic collapse fuels the fire. Snyder doesn't list it, but his other work (e.g., "11 Signs That a Recession May Have Already Started," February 2025) ties the knot: 7.5 million U.S. jobs tied to federal funds evaporated post-2024 cuts (Brookings, 2025). ABS data shows Australian rents and groceries up 20 percent since 2022, while wages lag—1 in 4 households skipped meals last year (LendingTree, 2025). This isn't hardship; it's a meat grinder, shredding dignity. People fight over crumbs—literally, as food bank lines hit record lengths—while billionaires soar (Forbes: top 10 wealth up 40 percent since 2020). Fromm saw alienation in profit-driven systems; today's insane society starves the many to fatten the few, dehumanizing us into statistics.

Culturally, the rot's palpable. Snyder's fifth sign—public freakouts, like a woman trashing a McDonald's over ketchup—mirrors a broader unravelling. X buzzes with 2025 clips of brawls in Walmarts, meltdowns on planes—civility's dead. Pop culture pumps violence and nihilism: top Netflix shows glorify gore, while music charts laud excess. A 2023 UCLA study linked media saturation to empathy decline; by 2025, we're desensitised, laughing at pain. Fromm's sane society fostered creativity and meaning; ours peddles chaos as entertainment, dehumanising us into spectators of our own decay.

The dehumanisation peaks in systemic absurdity. Snyder's eighth sign—a 75-year-old jailed for praying outside an abortion clinic—nods to it: laws twist to punish thought, not harm. Meanwhile, 42 million Americans lean on food stamps (USDA, 2023), yet corporate tax breaks balloon (ATO, 2025). Modernity's insane society doesn't just ignore human needs; it inverts them, jailing the powerless and coddling the architects of ruin. Fromm's vision of mutual support is a relic—here, we're numbers, not souls.

This isn't gradual; it's a plunge. Snyder's "significant portion" losing their minds isn't fringe—it's us, fraying under modernity's weight. Road rage killings, child murders, and public tantrums are the froth on a boiling pot: tech isolates, economics crush, culture corrodes. Fromm's Sane Society dreamed of reason and humanity; The Insane Society of 2025 reveals a world where both are luxuries. We're not just mad—we're less human, reduced to impulses, data, and despair. The establishment calls it progress; it's a madhouse, and we're all inmates.

Worse thing of all, the insane rule the asylum now. The task is to not just break free, but to restore sanity, humanity, and most of all, freedom.