RIP Normal.
Normal died in 2020, after decades of fitful health and fraught recoveries, but do not mourn it.
Normal, at least the “normal” with which we 21st century beings most associate, was born when post-WW II economic prosperity and the GI Bill ostensibly began building wealth for all Americans, when in reality it was largely for those (primarily caucasian) Americans not excluded by redlining, outright discrimination or other prejudicial practices that effectively limited African-American participation in the American “dream.”
Normal, and its myopic view of shared wealth creation, was enabled by massive industrial and commercial production, which in turn was fed by exponential increases in resource exploitation and burning of fossil fuels. It was in these early peacetime days that annual carbon emissions really accelerated on a global basis, first nearly doubling between 1950–1960 and then tripling by 1970. In fact, a Black child in 1960, newly able to sit in an unsegregated classroom, might have watched an educational film showing how industrial waste products and pollution that fueled the great American era of prosperity were already leading to something called “Global Warming,” a heating of the Earth’s atmosphere due to the 6 billion+ tons of CO2 being emitted globally every year at that time.
Cut to January 2020, where Normal defined for that 1960s Black child fortunate enough to have aged into a senior citizen still meant that, unfortunately, he/she would likely possess only 1/6 of the wealth of his/her caucasian counterpart, despite record gains in the nation’s aggregate wealth, GDP, Stock indexes and all of the other outdated markers of a citizenry’s well-being. And “Global Warming” from that 1958 Frank Capra produced educational film, how did that turn out in the Normal of our time? Well, as prophesied, the decades of unchecked growth fueling a Global Consumer Industrial Complex was now generating nearly 40 billion tons of CO2 emissions annually, even after years of repeated, urgent warnings from the International Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) and climate scientists the world over. The message from the experts was clear: that economic growth spurred by ever increasing emissions had to be balanced with the need to limit detrimental changes to the planet’s ecosystem which affect all life on the planet, but as always, disproportionately affect the poorest and least white. In fact, the situation was becoming so dire in the scientists’ view, that these emissions needed to be cut drastically by the following year onward, and when that didn’t materialize, then this next year onward and so on and so forth, with no action in sight. Ignoring all the facts and the pleadings of experts…was…Normal.
And all of this fabulous productivity and wealth creation that was Normal, which necessitated environment destruction — degrading the biosphere and accelerating species extinction, creating extreme weather events, sea-level rise, deaths from heat stroke and pollution, flooding, drought, exponential arable top soil erosion and not least, enabling zoonotic virus transmission that might result in a Global Pandemic — all of this sacrifice of the environment, of animals and of people’s health, surely it lifted up every citizen of the Globe affected by these repercussions to a better standard of well-being? Enabled them up to have better access to healthcare and education and respect for the rights of all peoples to thrive? Surely there weren’t still annually over 800 million people on the planet suffering from hunger? Surely Normal could not mean that over 40% of the citizens of the richest country in the world were unable to miss one paycheck and make their rent? Surely the systemic inequalities of racism that resulted in Black Americans being imprisoned at 5x the rate of white Americans would not happen in a nation that withdrew from the Paris Accord to keep its economic engine polluting at full speed, a decision surely made only to lift up its most vulnerable citizens instead of enriching only the few ….surely not?
Normal was a good marketing campaign covering up a gaping wound both in the social fabric and the biosphere. By at the very least just admitting this fact to ourselves as Americans and Global citizens, we could give ourselves a chance to affect meaningful change. RIP Normal, your time is done.
