We Have Never Been Normal

Why normality should never be an aspiration

This analysis was originally published on The Sociology of Business.

There are two groups of people right now.

The first group yearns for things to go back to normal. They seek the comfort of the known and the familiar, and are the ones who line up in Paris when McDonalds’ reopened. The second group (and the McKinsey consultants) prepares for the new normal. Their new normal is a version of the old one but with better adaptability, greater nimbleness or some combination of 5Rs (resolve, resilience, return, re-imagination, and reform), because that’s how consultants roll.

Both groups assume that there’s such a thing as “normal.”

Normal is defined as “conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.” Normal is very close to the “norm,” which refers to what is common or frequent. Related to them is “normative,” which refers to a morally-endorsed ideal.

It’s easy to confuse normal with norm and normative.

For example, it’s considered normal that US hospitals run as corporations. This is actually a norm: a most common way of doing things right now. Back at the end of the 19th century, US hospitals were run as charitable institutions, focused on health care and care for the poor. They were funded by…