How many new normal have there been? We are doing it over and over again. We are trapped, drawn deeper and deeper into the loop of new normal. Everything new is old, including normality.
There is nothing new about crisis and pandemics. Nothing new about changing social habits and adapting to different circumstances. It is our history, the core and the essence of humankind.
Remote work is not new, neither are video conferences and remote interpreting. Cutting costs is as old as this world.
It seems to me that the only new thing about today’s normal is the face mask. And not for everyone, in some parts of the world wearing face masks has been normal for quite a while.
Try googling “back to a new normal”, you get around 20.000.000 results, even though there is no such thing as “back to a new normal”. How can you go back?
Normal should not be our ambition, as normal excludes the possibility of change. Why do we insist on getting back to normal?
Normal doesn’t exist
Normal does not work simply because normal does not exist. Normal means nothing. Normal is different for everyone. Normal is not inclusive, or sustainable, or balanced. Normal is not good enough. It is floating adrift aimlessly in our world, dragging us along, always towards some new normal, which is never new.
So, should we break free from normal or should we go back to a new normal again?
It is a matter of mindset. Maybe we could live better, fuller lives if we forgot about normal for once.
