My Tao - The Madness of Sancho Panza

Sancho Panza was employed as Don Quixote squire in the famous novel about this self proclaimed knight and his trusted servant. While much has been said about Don Quixote's delusions, little has been noted about the peculiar madness of Sancho Panza.

The odd thing about Sancho is that he's quite aware of his master's madness, yet nevertheless fully prepared to trust him and invest his time in his service. When Don Quixote eventually dies and all their adventures come to nothing, Sancho has no regrets. His only sorrow is the loss of his master.

While it is true that Don Quixote provided many memorable moments for Sancho, and that the two men developed a close friendship during their adventures, this was not in the end what motivated Sancho to carry on for as long as he did. The true motivating factor was the promise of a great reward. Sancho was to be given an island to rule for himself once Don Quixote's many imagined enemies were finally defeated.

Sancho Panza carried on in the firm belief that a great reward was just around the corner, despite the evident madness of his master. Nothing made any sense. There were no dragons, no distressed maidens, no giants and no armies of infidels, only windmills, prostitutes, foundries and goat herders. Yet, out of all this, a great reward would nevertheless materialize?

While it's easy to dismiss Sancho as an easily fooled simpleton, truth is that he's no moron. He's down to earth and well aware of what's going on. He has no need of a master, yet he invests his time and energy into a madman's projects because the promise of a great reward is too much to give up for something as trivial as reality. To Sancho, reality is subordinate to hope, and this particular madness is much more common than we like to admit.

We all engage in some kind of wishful thinking from time to time, and a great number of us are willing to stake our financial future on nothing but hope and hot air. The promise of a comfortable pension at some future date keeps most of us going and paying into various pension schemes, even when we know that it's all an illusion. The wind turbines going up all over Norway are paid for by the sweat and labor of honest Norwegians. The promise of a prosperous and green future is clearly delusional, but most Norwegians continue to pay into this madness with the same sort of enthusiasm that Sancho had for Don Quixote.

We all know that politicians are full of hot air and delusional beyond repair, yet the great majority of us prefer to trust them with our money, convinced that we will reap much more than we pay in. Most everyone is suffering from the same madness that Sancho Panza suffered in his life, and when the welfare state collapses in a not too distant future, most people will have no regrets beyond a nostalgic longing back to the days when the illusion was still alive.

By Gustave Doré - originally uploaded on nds.wikipedia by Bruker:G.Meiners at 14:22, 28. July 2005. Filename was Don Quijote and Sancho Panza.jpg., Public Domain, Link