Numb is the New Norm.

I apologize to anyone named “Norman,” I have no beef with you.

I’m on my invisible soapbox about something serious affecting everyone: Normalization.

Defined by a social process through which ideas and actions come to be seen as ‘normal’ and taken for granted as ‘natural’ in everyday life, I wonder if anyone else sees what I am and feels quite abnormal about it.

Of course, any creative will tell you there is no such thing as ‘normal’ because they live to be undefined and run from boxes with talent that cannot be contained. But indeed, we all walk a common path that demands some regulation of the basest of human behaviors. ?

Living with lies and dishonesty is tolerated – here, we can include bad advertising, selling lemons, pyramid schemes, infidelity, criminals who get away with anything, and non-criminals who don’t. There are humans behind these acts that vary to fraudulent degrees, but we learn to accept this– even profit from it, with professionals who have carved out corporations to help. Bad behavior is good business?

And a mention that being over fifty as a woman and a worker has become a rite of terrible passage with heaps of passive disrespect – by the way, we see you. ?

BUT … When we witness people in the thousands and millions openly calling for death and backing terrorists who behead and others destroyed by illegal weapons in schools, synagogues, churches, mosques, bowling alleys, bars, clubs, and ball fields for no real reason, and do nothing, we have normalized evil.

Evil is now normal... Evil... Normal...

We are not powerless. Why the act? Better yet, why don’t we act? Clinging to others and seeking protection from a mob is psych 101. Groupthink discourages individual responsibility and permits action without reasoning or repercussions. Now, individuals are hiding behind one another in plain sight. The need for conformity has outweighed the mission to do the right thing. Where are the leaders among us? Speak your (educated) mind. Consequences be damned. [I’m sitting pretty because I can’t fall off the floor ??.]

“They” say that normalizing is the gradual result of being worn down by abnormal behavior. We become too exhausted to respond and acquiesce with acceptance. Some might say they are “jaded” with an air of sophistication and a more positive-seeming interpretation. World-weary from experience and wisdom that implies we should actually know better.

Corporations and organizations are complicit by standing idly, silent, and scared. Is this about profit or personal gain? Have we relinquished living with purpose?

We crave prime-time TV violence and gift our young with killer gaming. We swipe through open displays of hatred without a word but scream until laryngitis for team sports. We tolerate massive numbers of innocents being destroyed like the enemy by guns that we choose over people wielded by precarious suspects we know exist and refuse to assist.

Looking up from the rabbit hole I’ve now burrowed, there is light. ?

It’s not too late to grab the wheel:

·??????? We can come to Jesus with our principles. Regain the perspective and moral fiber that aligns with actual values.

·??????? Address personal bias. Fresh eyes induce honesty.

·??????? Proceed with your eyes open. It takes courage to see things as they are.

Please don’t look away.

?There may be no such thing as normal and a constant redefining of the new, but the solution to moving beyond normalization begins with us. ??

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