But if the old normal was wrong, then why did we call it normal? But like many of our words, as soon as we begin thinking about it, it starts to fall apart at the seams.
Even before the current crisis, many of us worked from home, and relied on technology to keep us connected Credit: Reuters. The word sneakily passes from description to prescription. The fact with which we started our process of categorisation becomes the standard or norm , and everything that diverges from that norm is not just different but abnormal and therefore less than normal.
But as Scott asks, why do we judge normal to be better than abnormal? Being overweight is fairly normal in the United States — many doctors, however, seem to encourage their patients to be abnormal in this regard.
What he is getting at is that our concept of normal pulls double duty; it tells us that what is, ought to be. In the absence of such rules, those who wish to identify normality will normally turn to one of three different definitions. Normal is what is typical, what most people do — which means it is impossible for any individual to be normal. Most people have two legs and the ability to breathe, and possess desires for sociality so these conditions are seen as normal.
The trouble with seeing normal in this way is that it may trick us into accepting statistically widespread phenomena as good. The norm provided a concrete standard that, if followed, allowed the user to reproduce a specific pattern.
Normal-as-ideal, then, might be in harmony with normal-as-ubiquitous, but it might be quite different. So, for instance, Nazism may have been widespread in Germany, but it was not normal because it did not live up to the ideal society we wish to achieve. On the other hand, random acts of kindness, even when they are in short supply, might be seen as normal in an aspirational sense: we want compassion to be a guiding norm in our societies. When it comes to defining normality, we start with what we think is normal before even considering what is abnormal Credit: Reuters.
What is normal for a human being, then, are all those behaviours which makes it fit to thrive in its particular niche. These three definitions of normality — 1 statistical, 2 aspirational, 3 functional — often end up sliding into each other during everyday conversation.
The new normal will mean that most of us will go back to most of what we were doing before the pandemic struck 1 , but that our societies will make changes for the better 2 , which will end up being good for the survival of our communities 3.
We want things to be the same, but we also want them to be different. He understood that in the face of fear, people long to go back to a time before the fear set in. His rhetoric connected with the public, which voted him into the White House on 2 November Nostalgia comes from two Greek words: nostos , meaning homecoming, and algia , meaning longing. To be nostalgic is to long for home. Nostalgia was originally a longing for a different place.
Eventually it became a longing for a different time ; more specifically, for a time that never existed. By providing your email, you agree to the Quartz Privacy Policy. Skip to navigation Skip to content. Discover Membership. Editions Quartz. More from Quartz About Quartz. Follow Quartz. These are some of our most ambitious editorial projects. From our Obsession. Capitalism is just a collection of human decisions. We can change it if we want to.
Now, in late-stage pandemic life, the echoes of this unimaginable life creep into my dreams, leaving me wandering around a packed place like Walt Disney World maskless, or being the only exposed face in a sea of people wearing a mask. My Normal is not yours. Sure, many people may want things to change. But will they commit to being part of that? Or will it be just like a resolution made at the start of a new year, one that is broken within a month or two?
When we have a green light to start living life again , to enter a new Normal, what will we hold onto from this time? Will we really stay unbusy? Will we care more about work flexibility , employee protections, access to medical coverage? Will anti-racism efforts, once at the forefront of the zeitgeist, be prioritized or forgotten? Will mass shootings become the exception rather than a painful rule?
When life changed, there was a period of adjustment. It took a while to get used to it. Then we did. Already, the pulls of Normal are tugging. For all the growth and change and adaptation that has happened in the past year, it is hard to even define what a post-pandemic normalcy might mean. The dictionary defines it simply as conforming to a standard — usual, typical, or expected. Is that really what we want? Without Normal, the path forward is more open, the opportunities perhaps broader.
What if, instead of banking on normalcy, we focused on that one-of-a-kind ability to adapt and evolve? Remember, Normal: You and me, we already broke up. Sections U. Science Technology Business U.
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