Crazy is the new normal

As the pace of senseless acts of violence – mostly using guns – quickens, the definition of what’s “normal” seems to be shifting. As one of the foremost students of the risks of normalizing the abnormal, Professor Timothy Snyder warns, one of the telltale signs that society is moving toward dangerous meltdown is precisely this normalization trend. As the number of “senseless” murders – usually with guns – becomes part of the regular news cycle, sort of like the weather report, we become inured to the creeping morphing of societal norms.

Utah’s Republican Governor Spencer Cox said what seems like a pretty obvious thing: “all I’m trying to do is to get people to stop shooting each other.” This is not a normal thing for a political leader to have to say. At least not in America. It’s the quiet part that is now being spoken out loud. As the debunked myth of what Trump’s mother, Mary Anne Macleod Trump didn’t say, (”Yes, he’s an idiot with zero common sense, and no social skills, but he IS my son. I just hope he never goes into politics. He’d be a disaster,”) plenty of others, including Trump’s niece, (also Mary Trump) effectively actually did say, a hallmark of the Trump era is permission for cruelty and barbaric behavior.

The Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, has one principal goal: maintain (or in the case of the Democrats, attain) power. In both cases, this is driven by impetus to chase the spoils that derive from controlling the largest revenue generating machine on the planet, the US Government. Make no mistake, “public service” for those at the top yields, in the most corrupt circumstances such as those we are living in now, immediate riches (see Jared Kushner’s latest deal to buy Electronic Arts) or the ability to garner multi-million dollar book advances, speaking fees and corporate directorships (basically everyone from the Deputy Secretary level and up).

People are not stupid. Or at least, the majority are not. They (we) understand at least subconsciously what the rules of the game are. Our leaders are followers. It is left to the few brave “non-leaders” to lead. These can be celebrities with big followings, they can be academic, corporate, or foundation leaders, they can be journalists and the press, and in some cases, they can even be just regular folks. Let’s each try to be one of the regular folks who refuse to normalize craziness.