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What is Normal and Reality and Why Change?
NMB, Florida September 23, 2001 A.H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on Issues, Ideas and Reflections on the Times. Published Now and
Then. Opinions Pro or Con Are Welcome.
WHAT IS "NORMAL", WHAT IS REALITY AND WHY CHANGE?
We begin to hear a lot about "when things return to normal" these days.
The sights and sounds of an agonized populace skirting the ruins of what
used to be "normal" weigh heavily on the hearts and minds of many, many
people. They would like to have things go back to what they were.
Things will not go back to what they were. There will be a new definition
of what "normal" means. This will just have to be. It is very much like the
notion that you cannot step into the same river twice - it passes by and
changes and is different - it is a New River. Time moves on and moments that
we would like to relive and remain as they were when first experienced -
that can never be.
There is also a new reality. Our old reality was forced to change in the
space of just a few hours. Here is a new way to look at "reality", at
"normal" and most importantly, at "change".
We can no longer assume that safety is built into our ordinary world. When
earthquakes dictated that we change the way we build our edifices it was a
long time before the "norm" was earthquake codes in building. Despite our
awareness we didn't change much and most of our buildings will fall when the
next earthquake hits. Reality is the earthquake or the airplane
deliberately aimed at a tall tower. Hurricanes have the same effect on
reality.
Americans no longer can be "ugly". The ugly American, a travesty seen and
detested all over the world, can no longer be the spendthrift oaf who
tramples on the sensibilities of different peoples in their own countries.
The reality I experienced on an El Al airplane and in the airports in
Israel and Italy where protection against terrorists was the prime concern
will be the reality that drives the new "normal" in airports here at home.
We can no longer assume that America, the U.S.A. and the Capitalist norms
that made us so singular will allow us to stand out from among the masses
inhabiting the rest of the world.
The American Christian faith in proselytizing its tenets can no longer be
accepted as the way to conduct the universe of discourse among differing
people and different faiths. The old idea that despite the tongue that says
the words and words that sound alike are no longer to be taken for granted
that they mean the same thing. It is a grand idea that ALL faiths praise
the same God and all prayers pray for the same things. The new reality
means that the new norm is to really understand how different all these
different beliefs really are. They are all quite good, as they are, only
different.
The new normal will also have to include the fact that not all human life
is valued the same. On top of their pedestals here at home, women are much
less valued and are enslaved in other parts of the world. Death, fatally
accepted as expected in other venues, is not the norm here. We will have to
look at death as part of life, a thing we are reluctant to do. Childhood
that once was extended throughout life will have to change. Slavery exists
in other lands among other peoples. "Normal" has been different in every age
and change is constant.
For the Jewish American the world has changed. About six million live in
the United States. It was once a minority that influenced the majority far
beyond what its numbers could be expected to do. American Jews will have to
get used to "normal" being that they are out-numbered and outvoted by a
Muslim minority that has grown faster and larger and is now very
influential. The question will be, at the ballot box how many voters can you
get to back you?
The reality is that change has brought us a new expectation of what
"normal" is. The new reality is that we must, on religious and moral
grounds, expect other claims to ownership of the Land of Israel to be louder
and demands to be more insistent. They will be paid attention to for all the
Arab and Muslim countries know that America deserved the punishment it
received despite the surface lamentations. The apologists for the attacks
on America will continue to maintain that there are good reasons for the
United States to be punished. This will be the new reality, the new
"normal". Change is forced on us and about time. We cannot continue to use
the old "normal" for there is a new reality. We cannot go back to that
earlier time.
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