Our new Normal

Challenges we are facing

Normal, a simple expression signifying a standard and a pattern across all fields in physical, behavioural and social sciences is losing its gist. In physical science the concept of normal is fixed (e.g. body temperature of an adult human being is 37c). In behavioural and social sciences, the idea of normal is an unwritten rubrics for individuals which predicts social interaction fostering cohesion with certainty. In psychology, it signifies an expected behaviour of an individual conforming to local societal expectation. In behavioural and social patterns what was normal during the 1950s is different from what is normal today globally. Everything which we call normal in the traditional sense is being challenged by none other than our own behaviour. Diplomacy is challenged by the illusion of supremacy. Our governance is challenged by authoritarian democrats with selective hearing. Human cognition is challenged by technology with head on collision with reality amid deliberate mis- and disinformation. Our survival is challenged by exponential income inequality. Our needs are challenged by greed & exploitation. Human coexistence is challenged by forever senseless wars. Our society is challenged by lack of understanding and cooperation. Looking back in our history books these challenges are not new but what is new is the pace and voracity with which these challenges are antagonizing our emotions and our existence.

Eighty years ago, the United Nations was created to implicitly check all above challenges by establishing certain norms and mandatory benchmarks including Law of War. But in the 21st century our leaders did everything in their power to demolish the only multilateral institution that serves humanity. In essence we have normalised every destructive element that could bring anarchy and collapse human civilisation itself. What are the chances of surviving all these threats where we have normalised wars, normalised climate crisis and normalised greed & exploitation. It is like a cognitive trap created with full consciousness. Why?

How we normalised wars

War has become a repetitive event in our society. Without narrating ancient history, Korean war started soon after the creation of the UN and since then we lived through numerous wars and now witnessing brutalities in Ukraine, Iran and genocide in Gaza with complete transparency and without shame. Did our brain not feel a shock anymore as we hear and see news, views and carnages committed on a daily basis? Many individuals feel helpless and those who can have selfish reasons to remain silent. We are made to believe that we live in a society with shared values and culture that defines norms and behaviour. But in reality, we have become inward looking creatures with misplaced spatial reasoning. When people do not personally experience the problem, it has become habitual for people to ignore them as distant events. It is like a moral numbness not being able to distinguish right from wrong and voice concern when needed. Our leaders can manufacture reasons to go to wars, because they can. Some leaders see wars as a destiny wrapped in the idea of honour, necessity and of course to maintain peace and security! It is an absolute failure of morality when war has become an integral part of a country’s foreign policy. The accomplices who rationalise wars are the media and the industries that benefit from the human bloodbath. We are seeing the worst of human beings with rising xenophobia and bigotry endangering basic human qualities such as empathy and social justice. If we are witnessing wars without a pause for the past eighty years, we must have subconsciously normalised wars. How many more wars will there be before humanity collapses in vivo?

Normalising climate crisis

Scientists have warned about the climate crisis since the 1950s with new scientific data every decade with information on rising atmospheric temperature, rising sea level, melting ice caps, and failure of agriculture due to climate change. In 1992 the Union of Concerned Scientists warned that human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. In 2017, more than 11,000 scientists issued a declaration warning of a climate emergency. In 1979 the first World Climate Conference was convened leading to the formation of an intergovernmental panel on climate change in 1988. Since 1995 there has been an annual climate conference with non-binding and binding resolutions but real actions to generate renewable energy that would reduce GHG release remain insufficient as demand for energy continues to rise. Had the political leaders and industries taken action starting in the 1950s perhaps the climate crisis may not have been so severe. Fossil fuel advocates pushed the idea that climate change is an inevitable event similar to the past geological & ecological events. In addition, political inactions based on media framing on behalf of fossil fuel industries led to current ecological situations with loss of biodiversity, melting glaciers, degrading of agricultural lands, erratic rainfall patterns causing crop failure, etc.
Many still believe that technology will resolve all our problems. Having seen how technology assisted weapons industry and social media is affecting humanity it might be a flawed optimism to depend on technology alone to mitigate or to solve climate catastrophe. In essence, we have simply normalised the problems created by the climate crisis as given pointing to future technology as the solution; it is hope against all odds. The gloomy reality is that people remain oblivious to the fact that the fallouts from the climate crisis will be much more severe for the future generations.

Normalising greed & exploitation

The concept of greed has always existed in the human psyche. In ancient times aristocrats exploited peasants and countries went to wars to expand territories. After two great wars with millions dead the world powers decided that we humans are equal and must live in harmony; people believed it. But what actually happened was that those in authority simply institutionalised the greed, making it less obvious and harmless. The basic motive of greed & exploitation - wanting more never changed. It simply changed the method and language.
Today we have financial corporations and government systems that serve the rich and those in authority who can influence government policies in service of the rich. Same strategy applies equally between countries where powerful countries can apply undue pressure through proxy wars and sanctions to gain control of what they want. One wonders why millions of people in so many resource rich countries are disfranchised and poor? It is not a default; it is by design. It is easy to corrupt politicians, a bad aspect of human nature. Confidentiality and or national security will always be there for all such illegal actions as justifications.
It is getting worse. In this day and age people depend on various software daily. But most software is on subscription not for sale, started by Adobe and Microsoft (MS-Office) in 2011 just like Netflix. Once you stop paying monthly or annual rent you lose access to the software. What is not understood is why the rich people/countries continue to exploit poor people/countries to continue amassing more wealth which they cannot spend in their lifetime? There are no banking systems between this world and the next, if there is one. Will people be ever content? Is it a moral flaw that God forgot to correct before creating us?

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