Have you ever noticed that whenever your boss, some pundit in the media, or politician declares a "new normal" it is always for the worse? Good new ideas are "game changers", "breakthroughs", "cutting edge". Not so with the "new normal."
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At work, the new normal often means harder work for less pay. In politics, it means social, regulatory, or economic edicts from above, that most of the population dislikes. We accept these diktats and social lurches, large or small, with alarming ease, preparing the way for a new wave of authoritarianism sweeping the globe.
We are now used to being told when we can or cannot work, travel, attend parties, hotels, gyms, restaurants, concerts and, most importantly, when we can exercise our freedom of religion in houses of worship or let our kids go to school.
We waited patiently for the panacea that would end this unpleasant new normal. A large percentage of us obediently stood in line to take the jab in our acute desire to return to our old normal. Yet, now, new variants of the virus are more infectious and are hitting younger and younger people.
In Israel, after a brief return to the old normal, we are again facing the dreaded mask and a possible new round of limits on gatherings. Will this new normal ever end?
Expect the new normal of more taxes, fees, and tariffs to pay the astronomical pandemic bill. Our Finance Ministry is mulling several new intrusions into our wallets. In a year or two, if you want to drive to Tel-Aviv during rush hour, you better be in a carpool or you will pay an entrance fee. Our government is thinking about removing the value-added tax exemption for online imports below $75. This tax relief was one of the few tools the Israeli consumer had to force domestic monopolies to compete and keep prices down, but the government wants its cut so this benefit is on the chopping block.
Another new normal is the cyclical exposure to ever deadlier bombs that send us scrambling to bomb shelters from Sderot to Haifa. The Israeli communities near the Gaza border in the south and the Lebanese frontier in the north have endured this new normal for decades. Many of the rest of us just clucked our tongues and accepted it. Indifference to our brother's plight led to expanding this deadly new normal.
It is terrifying how we have become accustomed to the new normal of cancellation. Elites, corporations, and powerful special interests can simply erase ideas they do not favor, creating a chilling effect on free expression for anyone who disagrees with the message de jour.
Iconic authors such as Dr. Seuss and Mark Twain are on the chopping block because hypersensitive critics from the 21st century are triggered by the older voices of civilization.
The old normal was that if someone said or wrote something you disagreed with, you walked away, stopped reading, or changed the channel. If this speech was distressing, you could speak your mind or rebut it in writing. No one got mobbed on Twitter. No one was shunned, lost their friends, family, or job. The new normal of enforced conformity in speech and thought greases the wheels for the next autocrat to control the propaganda machine that was once objective journalism.
Related to the new normal of cancellation is the new normal of information control. In his book, The Madness of Crowds, gay Conservative thinker Douglas Murray discusses his Google Images search of "straight couples." He found many of the images were, in fact, of gay couples. I repeated this search in Hebrew with the same results. If you Google "why is authoritarianism on the rise" your first 20 results will focus on right-wing authoritarianism, populism, and Donald Trump. If you Google search "left-wing authoritarianism," the first article is "Is there such a thing as a left-wing authoritarian?"
So do not just shrug and accept the next erosion of your liberty, security, and finances as the "new normal." Think about the winners and losers of the drastic change, and who is preventing you from fighting it.
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