[Critique Group 2] Emailing: The New Normal - An Essay - Early submission for Group 2 session 2-25-21 from Brad.

[James]

The New Normal? -An Essay:
C By Brad Corallo
Word count 563
The above phrase is frequently seen in popular media. But what does it
really mean?
In the final analysis,
What is normal or normality anyway? Some say, normal is like beauty.
That is: in the eye of the beholder. Bruce Cockburn tells us that: "the
trouble with normal is it always gets worse!" Also we must be careful about
not confusing normal with typical. Because something is typical i.e. seen in
a majority of situations doesn't necessarily make it normal. 

Why is the concept of normal so difficult to pin down. One obvious answer is
the wide cultural and personality differences among individual human beings.
So what is normal for one, isn't necessarily normal for another.

 We must also be careful not to confuse normality with conformity. 
Until some point in the 1960s, conformity was almost automatic in the
majority of citizens of the United States. In fact, it was rarely questioned
as to its desirability. As long as people were working and spending all was
well. From the point of view of the prime movers of society such made it
easier to preserve their own places in the matrix. 

The concept of "keeping up with the Jones's" was thought to be healthy and
normal. 

But social change is ultimately inevitable. First a few and then many began
to question why they should care about "keeping up with the Jones's." Who
ever said that we were competing with each other to have more and better
possessions? Actually this wasn't generally explicitly stated but rather
implied by advertising and television. Also glossy magazines illustrated
what the fully successful person's world should look like.

As a person with a disability growing up in such a social setting, normality
was very unclear to me. In order to get things done, I often had to do them
in ways which weren't at all typical; though for me these techniques were
totally normal. Consequently I have always seen normality as being a
flexible concept. 

By "the new normal" I believe they mean that masks and social distancing
will be with us for a long while. Additionally one pandemic means that other
pandemics are now possible. 

As more and more people on the planet are vaccinated against Covid 19, the
need for masks and social distancing will slowly decrease. Will things ever
revert to our pre-Covid life style? Perhaps, though there will be a
difference. That is that we ourselves have been changed by living through
the pandemic experience. Many things have occurred in concert with the
pandemic. Issues such as America's disunity, the problem of systemic racism,
more effective and appropriate techniques of policing, the nature of
political leadership and many more have also confronted us. Certainly the
mental health situation in the country, and for that matter the world has
not been improved by the above. 

We are living in a very precarious time. The rhetoric from everywhere needs
to sound a more positive tone. If we learn nothing else from the pandemic,
at least it should become abundantly clear, perhaps for the first time, that
people in all countries around the world are impacted by issues on a global
scale. All different kinds of people must put aside their preconceived
beliefs about one another and realize before it is too late that, we are all
we have!  

jamesstarfire at gmail.com  
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