"...when something strikes me as being "strange" I'll set off to find out more about what makes it tick."

Good idea. But that's not quite the same as announcing to all and sundry that tey are "crazed people" and that they "...they behave as if they've all gone insane...". Some people might think that putting it that way does have a touch of the "disrepectful" about it.

And there's no reason people can't carry on like that and be perfectly capable of operating a democratic system.

Actually, the way things work in this world, I suspect that this kind of event that's been televised could well catch on in some parts of the West. Isn't there a saying "Crazy enough for Califirnia"?