Normal, Relatively

Normal: conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

It is social conformity.

In very crude terms, society?generally sees normality as good and abnormality as bad. However, normality is redefined daily. Abnormality transitions to normality all the time. ?The cycle is often propagated first by the few who are not moved by social conformity, and eventually accepted, unheedingly by those who are. Abnormal cannot become normal without the key ingredient of oblivious trust (the socially entrenched blind eye).

The Cycle:

• Abnormality
• Acceptance by the few unmoved by social conformity
• Oblivious trust by the rest
• Abnormality is the New Normal

The new fact of the matter, normal changes so easily, which is deeply concerning because it is a constant reminder that anything we perceive as normalis at the brink of becoming abnormal, while abnormality is in transition to normalcy. It is a process, that feels like an event, in that one day you wake up, and cameras are obsolete in favor of phones, mail is only for solicitors, virtually everyone has an online platform for spreading unnecessary and, all too often, inaccurate information, Google and Facebook decide what one reads, Amazon what one watches, and an arbitrary and unaccountable system of government influence disproportionately the cost of living, and thus the quality of life.

Normal is dictated by society, a very scary proposition. For too often, historically, society has, well… history tells the story. Throughout history world genocide would not have been possible without the societies that normalized it. Society’s acceptance normalizes its government, whether it be democracy or dictatorship. As an adjunct, society normalizes consumerism or communism. Society makes fast food normal. Society has normalized the public school system. We can thank society for the paradigm of medication over wellness. Society can also be thanked for the normalcy of obesity, debt, and the end of journalistic integrity.

As the wheel of normalcy grinds, it is important to ask who is controlling it and why. Often, it is turned in the name of short-sightedness, greed, control, or self-interest. Always, it turns because society allows it to turn. It stops turning, when society stops allowing it. The cycle stops when society says so. Yes, when you say so. It is only the individual who can spark another individual to examine the consequences of the last normalizing turn. Then that individual repeats the process, and before long, it’s possible to take back control of the cycle.?