The New Normal
One of the most overused phrases that we hear these days is, “the new normal”. This characterization has been applied to changes to many heretofore traditional behaviors that were “normal” for average people. Now, with the militancy of activists of all stripes, standard rules of societal behavior and conduct are being replaced by newly minted acceptable ones. As dumb as many of these “new norms” are, given time, they creep in to be part of accepted behavior. It wasn’t that long ago that men held doors open for women. This is no longer the norm. In fact, these days, you’d have to be cautious of even assuming someone is a man or a woman. Think about photographs of people: The new norm is for people to express a defiant sneer whereas not that long ago, people smiled pleasantly during their photos.
The recent (and on going) Covid scare has resulted in new rules governing all manner of social interaction and of work, whereby people are segregated like eggs in zip locked cartons to ensure that they don’t physically interact. All social activity is now to be done remotely via online linkups; the new normal. Amazingly, the general populace has meekly subscribed to this “new normal” by acquiescing to this most oppressive edict for humans since Mao Tse Tung introduced the fashionable Mao suit. Ostensibly, this new normal is being mandated to ensure the health and safety of the populace. It’s quite amazing what governments can get away with when policies and laws are framed as “for the safety of the people”.
Fortunately, this edict has not prevented the long hallowed American tradition of protesting, rioting, looting, murder and general mayhem by certain segments of the population. The Seattle mayor in fact lauds this behavior and characterizes this as the summer of love, 2020. As in most things, there are always exceptions to the rule and if you get enough people to support your cause, exceptions will be made. In fact, amidst the Covid lockdown, social rioting to address oppression has achieved an all time high in popularity and participation. It’s so popular and inclusive, even the entitled and privileged are participating. Large enclaves of cities have been sectioned off and declared as autonomous zones from their parent cities; thereby manifesting the new normal. Laws against this kind of thing are openly flouted since, well, this is the new normal. As we now know, laws are only for the law abiding.
This “new normal” has reached into many other parts of our society as well. As we observe in the linked article, long established “norms” of legal behavior were disregarded by a judge Sullivan presiding over the highly partisan Michael Flynn case. Unwilling to follow established legal protocols, to which he must subscribe since he is employed as a jurist, he chose to try to establish a new normal by bringing in another jurist to advise instead. Put bluntly, he all but states, “I think he’s guilty, what do you think?” In essence, he didn’t like the law, so he’s trying to change the rules. This may establish the precedent for all future legal actions since it’s now been established that the judge can be a partisan and not just an impartial adjudicator. The new normal.
We can extrapolate this principle into the new normal anticipated to be implemented in professional sports. The NFL is at the forefront of the social justice movement now, but many other pro sports organizations will surely follow in lockstep, *cough cough Nascar*, The new fairness will usher in a new normal of socially equitable and politically correct competition. During a game in which the home team is losing badly to the visitors, the partisan sentiment of the home crowd will allow rules to not be applied to the home boys until they win. Maybe goal lines can be moved. Maybe the homies get 6 downs instead of 4. Maybe the visitors can’t cross beyond their own half of the field. Maybe the visitors have to use a bowling ball during their possession. Most importantly, no white on black violence.
The resulting spectacle may be as interesting to watch as organized nose picking, but at least we know in the end that the home team gets their way. It’s the new normal.