Sublime Madness

In a 2013 article, Chris Hedges discussed how human imagination gives people the capacity to endure and transcend oppression:  “Reinhold Niebuhr… labeled this capacity to defy the forces of repression ‘a sublime madness in the soul.’  Niebuhr wrote that ‘nothing but madness will do battle with malignant power and ‘spiritual wickedness in high places.’ This sublime madness, as Niebuhr understood, is dangerous, but it is vital. Without it, ‘truth is obscured.’ “