‘Why be Happy when you could be Normal?” are the attributed words of Mrs Winterson and the title of the book by Jeanette Winterson about her upbringing and striving to be herself. What is ‘normal’?
Not everyone’s ‘normal’ is the same
An odd thing for a mother to say, you might think, but Mrs Winterson’s ‘normal’ was rigid and Bible based, not the normal that Jeanette Winterson found. It could be that deep down she was just a bit envious of anyone who found a ‘happy’ normality. Normal is a tricky concept. I could say, ‘my normal is not your normal’, so how can we tell one normal from another. We could stand alongside each other and compare the differences in our physical nature, our various abilities, and whilst it would tell us how we differ, it wouldn’t tell us about being normal, or indeed, being human. Being human, if you like, is our ‘super normal’.
For some things, we could use a statistical definition. Within the normal range of heights for humans it can be plotted on a chart, it is called a normal distribution, it has a bell curve shape. The majority of people will be in the middle and be considered as having normal height. The very tallest and shortest tend to end up in the record books and provide an endless fascination for those who believe themselves ‘normal’. Normal height doesn’t tell us much about what is normal for me or you at a human level, where it might be more to do with how we fit into society, or more correctly, how each human society likes to define itself as normal.
Normal can be fitting in with the population around you
In 1898, H G Wells famously wrote ‘The War of the Worlds’, a sci-fi novel, but he also wrote many short stories. One short story from 1904 is called ‘The Country of the Blind’, about a climber who falls into a fictional valley in South America, a valley of forgotten people all of whom were blind. Being blind was their normal and they lived and thrived regardless of being sightless. He, of course, could see his way round and taking the proverb “In the country of the blind a one-eyed man is king”, decided to use his sight and to rule over them without realising that to them, he was the abnormal person.
They wished to help their visitor, who they believed had a neurological condition causing swelling where their eyes would have been. He falls in love, but if he was to marry and fit into their society he would need to be cured and made normal. I’ll leave you to work out how.
Us and Them – an old concept
‘Us and Them’ is a very powerful concept, it sorts sheep from goats and is to do with belonging, feeling secure, feeling normal and accepted. Normal is what fits with us, whilst those who don’t fit are considered ‘not normal’ or ‘Them’. Historically, being a part of a well identified group of peoples or tribe with whom we felt safe, could have created anxieties over not being familiar with neighbouring tribes. Distrust, envy, misunderstandings, shortages or not sharing resources could have grown to the point that survival mode became normal, creating ‘us’ against ‘them’. As in the past, once again such fears are being weaponised for political reasons.
Even a little research would have told Richard Tice (Reform UK Ltd) that, whilst the SEND system is broken, it is not the parents, nor carers, nor the children who are the problem. To say that SEND provision is ”being hijacked by far too many parents who are abusing the system, taking it for a ride” is simply to manufacture another ‘Them’ group for political gain.
Language surrounding what is normal (Us) or not (Them) is not new and to that extent seems ‘normal’. Where it becomes problematic is in two particular usages:
- Turning a word’s meaning on its head to create a ‘them’ class of people from a ‘normal’ section of society. ‘Woke’ is a classic example where its origins and meaning are ignored, then twisted and used to disparage a group of people.
- Related to this, is to take a normal set or group and present them as the cause of a problem for which the truth has to be distorted to make it fit. For example: it isn’t true that parents/carers are abusing the system of accessing free transport to school for disabled children, when it is a legal duty of the Local Authority to provide transport for all pupils who meet the criteria.
We have all witnessed this both here in the UK and perhaps more obviously in the US. As Mauricio Macri said, “There is more that unites than divides us.” We are all part of the ‘super normal’ inhabitants of the Earth we call home!
