Post by ck4829 on Nov 19, 2016 0:04:21 GMT
What happens when a set of beliefs considered by many to be so fringe and so hateful are the winners of a national election? The losers beg that the behavior not be normalized. While warnings against normalizing President-elect Donald Trump have appeared all through the campaign, they’ve mushroomed since his election across the political spectrum. A Forbes article pleads, “Normalizing Trump: Why The Washington Media Must Break The Fluff Cycle.” A Media Matters piece claims, “60 Minutes Is Already Helping Normalize Trump’s Presidency.” The Lawfare blog discusses, “Donald Trump and the Normalization of Torture.” Meanwhile, the National Interest flipped the script, charging the press and Trump critics with “Normalizing Hysteria.”
“Normalize” is a word of the moment. But it, along with the idea of normalization, goes back to the 1800s. The earliest uses documented in the Oxford English Dictionary are related to biological processes, but one is a clear predecessor to today’s uses. A New York Times article from 1864 discusses how “. . . attempts to normalize despotism display the impotency as well as the malignity of the Executive.” The normalization of despotism is exactly what so many fear today.
Biological functions, despotism, you name it: Just about anything can be normalized. You can normalize orthography by making it more uniform or normalize your breathing after heavy exercise. There are types of normalization specific to math, metallurgy, and computing. Data normalization reduces redundancies, creating data that are more uniform and therefore easy to analyze. One meaning from psychology seems particularly relevant to recent events. According to the OED, normalization can mean “The subconscious process whereby the mental image of a shape, pattern, etc., is changed to resemble something more familiar.” In political terms, that can mean a nonpolitician elected to the presidency becomes just another guy in the White House.
Several sub-senses of normalization are specific to politics. When two countries are in conflict, normalization — meaning resumption of peaceful relations — is often the goal. A 1940 use in the journal Pacific Affairs is interesting in hindsight: “The USSR seeks to avoid war with Japan and to normalize relations with that country.” A recent Bloomberg piece echoes this theme: “Putin, Trump Discussed Ways to Normalize US-Russia Relations.” President Obama has gotten credit and blame for attempting to normalize relations with Iran and, as seen in a recent headline from The Nation, Cuba: “Normalization of Relations With Cuba Is All But Irreversible Now.”
www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/11/17/what-does-mean-normalize-exactly/nsvIiXsSwh5aDDW3lsBnTO/story.html#comments
Controlling the definition of "normal" is quite important, and so is realizing that.
“Normalize” is a word of the moment. But it, along with the idea of normalization, goes back to the 1800s. The earliest uses documented in the Oxford English Dictionary are related to biological processes, but one is a clear predecessor to today’s uses. A New York Times article from 1864 discusses how “. . . attempts to normalize despotism display the impotency as well as the malignity of the Executive.” The normalization of despotism is exactly what so many fear today.
Biological functions, despotism, you name it: Just about anything can be normalized. You can normalize orthography by making it more uniform or normalize your breathing after heavy exercise. There are types of normalization specific to math, metallurgy, and computing. Data normalization reduces redundancies, creating data that are more uniform and therefore easy to analyze. One meaning from psychology seems particularly relevant to recent events. According to the OED, normalization can mean “The subconscious process whereby the mental image of a shape, pattern, etc., is changed to resemble something more familiar.” In political terms, that can mean a nonpolitician elected to the presidency becomes just another guy in the White House.
Several sub-senses of normalization are specific to politics. When two countries are in conflict, normalization — meaning resumption of peaceful relations — is often the goal. A 1940 use in the journal Pacific Affairs is interesting in hindsight: “The USSR seeks to avoid war with Japan and to normalize relations with that country.” A recent Bloomberg piece echoes this theme: “Putin, Trump Discussed Ways to Normalize US-Russia Relations.” President Obama has gotten credit and blame for attempting to normalize relations with Iran and, as seen in a recent headline from The Nation, Cuba: “Normalization of Relations With Cuba Is All But Irreversible Now.”
www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/11/17/what-does-mean-normalize-exactly/nsvIiXsSwh5aDDW3lsBnTO/story.html#comments
Controlling the definition of "normal" is quite important, and so is realizing that.