The Norm

Lately I have been thinking about norms—and there are many. We are familiar with cultural norms, ethical and moral=social norms, planning and industrial norms, and uncounted other norms.

We all have heard older people remark about a young person who is a bit immature, has bad behaviors, is lazy or parties too much, “Just give him/her time and they will come to the middle. What is the middle? It is the place where most of us conduct our life, the modus which holds our society together and keeps it going. How do most people define the norm for our society? Well, that is simple. We define a person who holds a job, pays taxes, has a family (no matter how large or small or what members it consists of,) and, more to the point adheres to our laws, as one adhering to the norm.

So how do we define the norm? Well, anyone who has taken higher math or statistics knows that when we gather data for any given quantity and put the found values on a grid between two axis called the x and y axis, and then connect the dots with a pen, we most often come up with a with a curve that turns out to be a perfect bell-shape.

If we further denote the highest point of the bell curve as 0 or 100, we can then denote spaces accorded by percentages to 1, 2, 3, 4, distance points which we call standard deviations. This is the way in which we measure intelligence, children’s allergies, crop maturation success and, for example the cultural norm. (Google Bell Curve and learn.)

Now measuring some things is easier than others. For example: when examining cultural norms we get into philosophical troubles and debates. In Inca-society it was perfectly normal to cut the heart from a living victim and, as it has been claimed consume part or all of the body. If we define this behavior as normal in this society, we would have found that sixty eight percent of the people agreed with the creed and thought that this was perfectly good behavior. Within another standard deviation on either side we would have found 14% of people disagreeing with the concept and, on the other side of the curve 14% believing that not enough killing was being done.

Do you see where I am going with this? In our own political system, until recently, people believed that our government was just fine and doing a good job. Hence the bell curve would have shown 68% of the people to agree with this statement. Today we could not show you this distribution. You would see a curve enormously skewed toward one side.

Let us examine the cultural norm of Islam. Most Muslims in different countries believed for a long time that their society and culture was adequate. The combined believe of the majority could have been expressed in the perfect bell curve. Today their world is changed and you would see a bell curve that represents recent upheavals and the new normal thought shows discontent with the old norm. It is also normal in Islamic culture to keep women in a state of semi-servitude by denying them most civil rights, and that this is the societal norm.

Let me end this epistle with a thought to contemplate the dissolution of our own social and cultural norm. The standard defining normal has been broadened to a point where the bell curve does not exist anymore. Marriage for example has been changed in its definition where it has no more cultural meaning. Other social values, too, have been stretched to be literally unrecognizable. The complicity of our governmental organizations in the proliferation of pornography, for example, has made it possible that some of our best minds are polluted, rendering them addicted and chained to the computer and its ever more degrading fare. Thus they are unable to be of value to our civilization. John Armstrong in his book “In Search of Civilization,” states, “It is possible to inherit a great civilization without possessing the will to defend its ideals.” This statement describes our society perfectly. Who will now defend our ideals?