Who is it that gets together in mobs and hunts down, tortures and
kills people who are different from them? Who is it that teaches modesty,
courtesy, and generosity but lives in depravity, rudeness, and greed? Who
is it that can gather together the time, energy and money to murder
millions and destroy cities, for the sake of a flag, deity or economic
system? Not weirdos, not kooks or cranks or nuts. It's the "Normal"
people who do those things.
It's the "Normal" people who believe there's only one "real world"
and it's the one THEY'RE living in. It's the "Normal" people who kill
each other over differences in that reality, and if someone can't trick
themselves into ignoring the millions of inconsistencies or can't gloss
over the gaping flaws in that reality-construct, or can't even pretend
convincingly that they believe that flimsy and self-contradictory world is
ALL TRUE, rather than have their own illusory stability undermined or
accept that other ways of thinking and seeing might be valid, the "Normal"
people imprison those "mentally ill," and experimentally destroy their
personalities by use of drugs, electroconvulsion, and brain surgery.
I saw a letter to Ann Landers from a poor couple whose son took
steroids and later began to think he was JFK. Unusually sensible doctors
wouldn't agree with them that it was a Disease called Schizophrenia, and
wouldn't keep the fellow locked up and drugged as his loving parents
wanted. (They had looked up Schizophrenia in a book and thus knew all
about it.) Their son eventually killed himself, and the parents cautioned
all young men against the use of steroids. I felt sorry. Not for the
son, who is now free, but for the parents who drove him to final escape by
the continuing refusal of the validity of his primary goal in life, "to go
to Washington and help people with their problems." Rather than take the
time to teach their son to use his strange gift, they succumbed to their
fear of the unusual and destroyed the creature they helped create.
It's the "Normal" way of thinking to label things and file them
away so they don't have to be thought about any more. If "idea x" is
labeled as "stupid" it can be discarded. All subsequently encountered
ideas bearing any resemblance to "idea x" can also be so classified and
discarded, saving valuable time and energy for watching TV or thinking
about movie stars. If something new or different comes along, the
"Normal" way is to classify it as quickly as possible according to the
guidelines set down by reputable authorities so it may be conveniently and
safely filed away. This might not be such a destructive system if it did
not cripple or entirely halt the learning process, but once a "Normal"
person learns to use this technique, consideration of new or unusual
things or ideas is only necessary when the classification system itself
fails or is too limited in scope to encompass the thing seen or thought.
It is the duty and function of "Normal" people to classify, label
and file the whole of existence and experience. Sadly, a description of
the nature of the object is frequently taken as a distillation of the
essence of the object. In the unwritten sequel to the classic poem "The
Blind Men and the Elephant," we go a thousand years further on the linear
timescale to a world in which vast temple complexes have been built by the
followers of each of the seven theoreticians and holy war is waged against
all who dispute the fact that an elephant is very like a tree, a wall, or
a rope. Even worse, cults arise venerating fans and ropes AS ELEPHANTS,
and devotees plant bombs in the automobiles of those who insist that a
wall is just a wall,and not an elephant at all.
It's the "Normal" way of thinking to believe that we call a thing
by a name and classify it as a certain kind of thing because that is what
it IS. Regardless of well-known classical allusions to roses and other
names, "Normal" thinking dictates that name defines nature, that a thing
is what you say it is and you say it is what it is because that's WHAT IT
IS. "Normal" thinking disregards the fact that two different people can
look at the same object in the same place at the same time, and reach two
entirely different conclusions about the nature of that object: not
because the object itself is variable or has two or more natures, but
because each individual bases conclusions and deductions on the whole of
experience and their likes and dislikes, or physical and emotional state
at any given moment. Thus, one person may glorify as a symbol of the
highest ideals of humanity the image of a man being tortured to death and
brand "obscene" the image of a child with no clothes on, and someone else
might consider such thought idiotic. Some persons may maintain their
right to hold their own opinion based on their own tastes and experiences,
and others might interpret that as a blanket condemnation of all they are,
and fear for their lives ever after.
I don't wish it to be thought that "Normal" thinking is
essentially a bad thing. Very few people actually require an open mind or
the ability to reason in the course of their everyday lives. A donut-shop
cashier does not need to consider the ethics of selling blobs of greasy
dough, and a philosophical and ethical outlook would be an outright
detriment to a nuclear warhead assembly plant worker or oil-company
lawyer. It is vital for most people to continue to act "Normal." Without
such behavior the wheels of commerce and progress would grind to a halt.
The excesses which make life in this modern world so simple for those who
are free from the confining systems of dissatisfaction and complaint would
suddenly cease to be. Without the ridiculously expensive and painfully
loud car stereos, the mindless repetition of pop-song lustmongery,
elaborate hairdos, huge jewelry and ten-thousand-dollar wristwatches
dangling before the sleepwalking hordes there would be no cheap crummy
apartments, discarded art supplies, inexpensive healthfood, or good
secondhand clothing.
For the most part, the existence of "Normal" behavior is a good
thing for those who require nothing more. But for people who care about
things or think about things, who examine their lives and their place in
the world, acting "Normal" is insanity, a trap which leads to constant
dissatisfaction and eventual destruction. Acting "Normal" for such people
is hating, complaining, finding fault, holding grudges, being afraid, and
limiting themselves to the small world of everyday existence, the world
even "Normal" people pay most of their money to escape from by buying
distractions, or getting loaded and laid as much as they can before they
die.
When it is possible to choose not to live in the small world of
reaction to stimulus, to act by choice and to choose the good, to see
beauty and find enjoyment anywhere, there is no need to escape, no place
or person to escape from. When emotional and physical states are seen as
temporary and subject to will and choice, when the past is seen only as a
picture in the mind and the future as a dream not yet dreamed, to live and
to enjoy living become, not "Normal" but NATURAL, essential, a part of
each individual nature.
POSTSCRIPT: This essay was written years before the wide public
participation in internet. If it were being rewritten now it would
certainly include thoughts to the effect that it is "Normal" people who
critique the grammar or typography of literature which contains ideas they
don't understand. It is "Normal" people who display the height of their
intellectual and crative capacity by using the anonymity of a mailing
address to take one-line wisecrack potshots at people who actually try to
THINK about things and express those thoughts through imperfect physical
interface. ...and so on, delineating some of the common ways that stupid
intolerant people use to attempt to bring down to their own level anyone
on the net who displays any earnestness or sincerity in the desire to make
the world a better place for everyone.
Peevishly,
NENSLO
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[email protected] COPYRIGHT NENSLO/KDV 1994 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Send One Dollar to Box 86582 Portland OR 97286 USA
