Institutionalized Insanity is when a repetitive non-intuitive activity is programmed or legislated into society such that it gets accepted as being normal or logical to the majority of people that it effects. This dysfunctional type of procedure tends to reproduce or replicate itself in an unknowing fashion similar to a cancer that ends up killing off the very host that was supporting its life and/or livlihood. If some person, entity/corporation, or group keeps doing the same thing over and over again without noticing or evaluating the actual results or expecting different results then this is insanity.

To be institutionalized is to be embedded within an organization, social system, or society as an established norm within that system. The term institutionalisation is widely used in social theory to denote the process of making something (for example a concept, a social role, particular values and norms, or modes of behaviour) become embedded within an organization, social system, or society as an established custom or norm within that system. In a corporate context, individuals who work within large established organisations can become socialised into organisational values and norms, and values and norms may become institutionalised. It has been suggested by some writers that such supportive structure and routines may in some cases lead to a narrowing or reduction in individual critical judgement and reasoning. This accepting mental outlook, can lead to oversight and slowed reaction to changes outside the organisation, thus hindering adaptation to new circumstances.

EXAMPLES

Genocide is an example of institutionalized insanity.

Institutionalized Insanity in the Service of Genocide: The World Bank and Lawrence Summers -- Lawrence Summers has been nominated for a second term as the Secretary of the Treasury by President Obama, a position he held under President Clinton as well. In 1991 Lawrence Summers wrote a memo when he was the Chief Economist for the World Bank. Mr. Summers was President of Harvard University until he noted in public that women lack the mental ability to do science. Just in case you thought that the notion of a genocidal agenda by the global elite is "just a conspiracy theory," please note the words of Mr. Summers himself rationalizing polluting the developing world because, "It is cheap, effective and the increased cancer ratios will not show since the people there do not live long enough to develop the cancers." This insane "logic" was effectively pierced by the Brazilian Minister of Environment after the memo became public in February 1992. Jose Lutzenburger, Brazil's then-Secretary of the Environment, wrote back to Summers: "Your reasoning is perfectly logical but totally insane... Your thoughts [provide] a concrete example of the unbelievable alienation, reductionist thinking, social ruthlessness, and the arrogant ignorance of many conventional 'economists' concerning the nature of the world we live in... If the World Bank keeps you as vice president it will lose all credibility. To me it would confirm what I often said, the best thing that could happen would be for the Bank to disappear." Sadly, Mr. Lutzenburger was fired shortly after writing this letter. Mr. Summers, on the other hand, was appointed the U.S. Treasury Secretary on July 2nd, 1999, and served through the remainder of the Clinton Administration. Afterwards, he was named president of Harvard University. http://www.whirledbank.org/ourwords/summers.html. For more information on Mr. Summers and his current status as a nominee, see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/lawrence-summers-africa-i_b_141706.html

Then there is Monsanto...