Normal is dead - Long live the new Normal

Words are weird. Their obvious role is to provide a shared vocabulary to the population. They do that by providing meaning to groupings of alphabets. While the linguistic meaning of a word is usually straightforward, the implied meaning or the affected meaning of a word or phrase is usually varied.

After all, language is an extension of society and the world in general. Therefore it is only natural that it reflects the society at large and is a tool of the majority. For example, the word Murder might cause a genuine mental health spiral for the loved one of a Murder victim but it is a common term in the zeitgeist to represent complete domination, in sports, politics..etc. “He murdered her in the Debate “

As said above, words are weird. Because they are like tiny verbal mirrors. You see the meaning you want to see and associate that particular meaning forever with the word in question. From that point on whenever you hear that word, you infer the meaning you have derived while the person next to you derives her/his own meaning.

This has been a normal trait in discourse. There is no particular larger harm in this for society. At the end of the day, they are just words. No larger theme or implication is derived from a single word or phrase that has open interpretation ….Till now

"The New Normal"

In Silicon Valley, the Outstanding HBO hit TV series, two characters are jointly griping about their colleague named Richard . However they don’t want to seem too mean because Richard is also a friend and great guy in general. So instead of prefacing every one of their gripes with politeness, they coin a acronym . It was called “RIGBY” – “ Richard is Great but Y’know”

The scene ends with each of them piling on the insults. “RIGBY, F*ck that guy”

As you know, the global pandemic that scientists have been predicting for 20+ years caught us all by surprise. Lockdowns, panic, travel cancellations, Instagram live sessions , Tik tok bans, and 2 Million cases later we emerged with a shared global vocabulary.

The New Normal. A noun that is an adjective, made by nouning of an adjective.

Every office call, job interview, casual conversation, podcast, apology, and even monologues use the new normal.

It is a token. It is the state of an industry. It is the affairs of a government. It is a state of mind. It is existence.

There is almost nothing that the “new normal” has not been applied to. And by nothing, I literally mean nothing

It is the go-to phrase for media, entertainers, politicians, businessmen, and academia. Therefore it is no wonder that it is a colloquial staple in almost every country and across every stratum of society.

The same word is being used as a token for the crumbling healthcare infrastructure of our so-called civilized world and also is being used to represent the difficulty that millionaires were facing in planning vacations.

It is also used for conversations like this :

Person A: Hey, how are you holding up?

Person B: I Am doing okay. As much one can be, in this new normal.

Person A: Hmmm. True. Same here

This is a real conversation I overheard and I know that words were exchanged but I do not know what was communicated.

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I was therefore curious about this “new normal” and wanted to know more. Everything I wanted to know about the topic resolved itself into two questions

a) Where did the term new normal come from?

b) Was the new normal really new ? if yes, what was the old normal then.

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a) New normal - Old Story

Ironically the term new normal is at least a hundred years old. A bulletin issued by the National Electric Light Association ( not to be confused with the other light-based association which goes by ‘Illuminati” ) in 1918 contained the first usage of the phrase to describe a state of affairs.

It was in a speech made by Henry.A.Wise wood titled “Beware”. He said

“To consider the problems before us we must divide our epoch into three periods, that of war, that of transition, that of the new normal, which undoubtedly will supersede the old. The questions before us, therefore, are, broadly, two: How shall we pass from war to the new normal with the least jar, in the shortest time? In that respect should the new normal be shaped to differ from the old?”

Provided its usage in a bulletin of a professional association one might presume the widespread colloquial usage of the phrase. What was happening in 1918? Global war and a pandemic. That should do it. Anything that follows those set of events cannot be in any shape or form be the old.

From 1918 till the 2000s, the phrase was orphaned. Only to be used sparingly in financial statements to denote new taxes and in the educational world to denote schools that went by the same name. None of them were in the usage of what we are in search of.

The New normal in the colloquial zeitgeist became prevalent again in the early 2000s

Predominantly the usage of the phrase was centered around the 9/11 attacks in the United States. The earliest usage of this term was found in the following works :

The New Normal: How FDNY Firefighters Are Rising to the Challenge of Life After September 11 (2002),

Assessing the New Normal: Liberty and Security for the Post–September 11 United States (January 30, 2003),

After 911 in the ‘New’ Normal: Who Are We? Why Are We Here? Where Are Going? (February 1, 2003), and

The New Normal: Living a Fear-Free Life in a Fear-Driven World (2005).

Inevitably all of them revolved around a country and in turn the world in fear. The rise of terrorism and the potential trade of personal liberties for safety.

From that point till 2019, there were several more uses of the phrase. All of them centered around themes of either recovery from sudden unexpected loss, violation of human rights and/or the impacts of regional wars/conflicts

It is fair to conclude that there is nothing new about the phrase in itself. Nothing much can be gleaned from history to the ubiquity of this phrase in today's world.

Maybe it can be explained by understanding the newness of this normal.

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b) What is new about this new normal?

There is a possibility that the widespread and sudden usage of this phrase may be due to the absolutely strange turn the world around has taken, for every single one of us, at the same time. If so, maybe this phrase might just be the word to accurately reflect the scale of change. Let us explore the newness of the situation that we currently face -

b.1) Deadly infectious disease?

Maybe once in a Human history event such as a deadly pandemic deserves a new moniker to act as a magic word?

Okay not once in a lifetime then. This seems positively benign compared to our past history of pandemics.

Maybe the suddenness of the disease, which came with no warning sign deserves the coining of a Super phrase?

Strike 2. Apparently scientists were shouting from the rooftops for a couple of decades. So suddenness is ruled out as point of origin for the “New Normal”

b.2 ) Never before seen Restrictions on movement and Economic freedom?

There is no doubt that most of us are on the edge of sanity. Having to live, work, and spend every waking second within our houses. No vacations, No restaurants, No beach drives, No sports, and No hangouts. There is no doubt that such restrictions on such a large populace were never enacted In the history of the world. Especially India. There is also no doubt that we live inside of an Opaque bubble.

In an excellent analysis, Sajith Pai argues for the case of not one but several different Indias while calculating the potential market size for various product and service ventures

By reading this and by having the OPTION to be at home, You, Me, and everyone we know fall in India1. Because India2 & India3 do not have the OPTION to work from home.

India2 & India3 doesn’t have Zoom, a separate workspace, or an Instagram addiction.

They do not have the OPTION to remain at home fearing the virus. They are the visible and invisible cogs of the machine. Me ordering from Big basket with a button does not mean Thin air is converted into my favorite noodle packet. A Supply chain with individuals as links functions to put foods on our tables, to keep the hospitals running, and to maintain basic sustenance.

The worst thing that can happen to me is me losing my job. If that is the worst thing that can happen during a global pandemic, that’s not too bad, is it?

Also, a term that applies to 6% of the workforce cannot be a comprehensive term right?

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What in God’s name is the New normal then?

After racking my limited intellect for this answer and after googling “Smart sounding ways to say I don’t know”, I landed where I began in this search.

While Henry wood’s context of the new normal goes on to covers a lot of things, several of which do not apply to us, One lingering question of his is fully applicable to us

“ In that respect should the new normal be shaped to differ from the old?”

It is understandable that in our collective anxiety and to meet our depraved need to label things, we might have chosen the term “New Normal” as a stand-in.

But by definition the phrase is flawed. How can normal be new? If it is normal does that mean we revert to pre-COVID where the world was heaven on earth?

There cannot be a better example of an amorphous ambiguity than this “new normal” phrase. No one knows what it means and everyone knows what it means. It’s the RIGBY of words. (Yes, I introduced an entire reference just to use it once, several pages later)

I still do not know what the new normal is. But I do know what the new normal cannot be.

1. The New normal cannot be one in which 80% of households cannot survive for 1 week without income

2. The new normal cannot be one in which the majority of the population do not even have the choice to work remotely

3. The New normal cannot be one in which a healthcare system that is crumbling and one in which migrant laborers walk a few hundred kilometres to not live like an animal in makeshift camps

By using the word “New normal” collectively as a society and individually we refuse to acknowledge the totality of our current situation. By labeling the spectrum of issues and pain and troubles we are facing as “New Normal”, we shove it aside. Refusing to admit it, trying to find a way back into where we were and what we were.

Where we were and What we were is what lead us to now. The Old normal was not working for the majority of the country. The current so-called new normal finds us more in pain than we were. Which normal do you want to go to?

Naturally, we feel helpless and useless in a country of Billion+ People. But to use language that substitutes the collective memory of the struggles that we are undergoing right now is idiocy.

There is no such thing as normal. There are structural inequalities. There is privilege. There is struggle and there is pain. There is blood, sweat, tears, and more pain. Then there is death. In between all of this, there are a few moments of fleeting joy and a lifetime of learning. This is us. Warts and all

If I came into your house, stole your furniture and called it new normal. Am assuming that won't fly.

If the Allied nations accepted Hitler’s Holocausts as New normal. Am assuming it would have been evil

There is nothing normal about where we are now. Our Parents remembered the pain of not having an education, hence their absolute insistence on ensuring their kids had it. Remember the pain. Remember the struggle, do not whitewash it with a word.

Have a real conversation reflecting your real struggles in your every day

Person A: Hey, how are you holding up?

Person B: I Am doing okay. As much one can be, in this new normal.

Person A: Sorry What? I didn’t understand what you said

Person B: I think am losing my mind. My kids are driving my crazy and at the same time am worried about their mental health. My husband is working more than ever now but thinks him doing the dirty dishes is a favor to me. My boss is an asshat who calls me at any time and goes on a 20-minute rant while my kid is trying to rip the phone out of my hand. We probably will have to dip into our savings to manage next month's expense. I am upset that I saw a woman walking 300 Kms with her kid just to go back home. I am angry that we live in a society where we have to run at a hundred miles per hour just to stay still. I think am depressed and I might be suicidal.

Person A: Hmmm. How can I help?

Embrace the instability, cherish the discomfort, and enshrine the struggle. For maybe in the first time of our existence as a race, there exists an opportunity to empathize. Across countries, races, classes, castes, genders, and creed

Do not use an empty oxymoronic tautology to nullify that

This existential planetwide crisis should not be reduced to :

“ THE NORMAL IS DEAD!! LONG LIVE THE NEW NORMAL!!!”

Now is the time to assess and admit that we are broken and build new foundations.