REALITY, NORMALITY, DISAGREEMENT, DEFENSE
Part of popular culture is the idea that there is no normal. There are a lot of different normals living in the same objective reality. Popular culture suggests that one cannot know what normal is, and that it is politically and socially incorrect to think that one can. We are supposed to think that all realities are valid, and it is expected that we will tolerate, defer to, and nurture them, even at the expense of our own health, happiness, and prosperity. The other’s reality is of equal or greater value to mine, and the nice thing to do is to defer to the other. It is mean and stupid for me to insist on the superiority of my reality, and defend it against your encroachment on it. When, where, and how did you earn the right to promote yourself at my expense? What makes you think that I will cooperate with you? What makes you think that I will not turn on you, and rend you limb from limb in defense of myself? Reality isn’t what you say it is. Reality is what I am willing to do to you in defense of myself. It doesn’t matter what you say. It only matters what I do.
Muhammad Ali photo. ©2014 Judo Minnesota. Retrieved March 1, 2016, from http://judomn.org/boxing.html.
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