Hoodlum old friend, you know me, an Outcast in the true meaning of the word.
Allegiance is always my own, can't live otherwise and be true to myself in the first place. Barking mad as you said... accept and be accepted.
We operate on a higher level of being. Many wonder why we take life so easily. It is because this life is just a dream of what truly is. What human beings cherish is just an illusion... there is no such thing as death, only change. That's why we flourish.
It's a Zen thing.
On the other hand... a priest once told me that it's a tete-a-tete with the devil.
Bernard.
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God? - from 'Nightfall' by I. Asimov The Outcasts consider Siniestre Nube a sacred place for several reasons. Early explorers discovered a jumphole within the depths of the cloud that leads to a strange world of ringed stars and strange craft. All ships in the burrial ground are placed facing that hole to honor the Alien Spirits. - An Outcast rumor