Freak out now

Psychologist and educator Pierre Weil warns us about the toxicity of social normality that leads to anxiety...

John Lenon said that he was afraid of being normal, going against social dictates – which expect each subject to correspond to the requirements of uniformed behavior and appearance according to the region and time, in order to be accepted (likes, compliments, positive looks, etc.).

In ancient Greece, the economy basically depended on slave labor; in ancient Egypt, private property did not exist; in the Roman empire, adults were sexually satisfied with minors; and nowadays – in Afghanistan – women are not allowed to show their faces or say their names and are still buried as paupers.

They are multifaceted realities that intrigue us because we see everything from a distance, due to not being part of our bubble.

Society exerts coercive forces against the subject, who only reproduces what they order. With great difficulty, he manages to combat these pressures because (when following the opposite path) he will suffer rejection and disregard from the group to which he belongs.

Psychologist and educator Pierre Weil warns us about the toxicity of social normality, whose rule leads us to unreflective practices that lead to anguish, suffering, pain, dependence and an exacerbated need for self-promotion - which in the long run will lead to several problems even because we can't preserve who we are for a certain time.

This criticism of normal behaviors that are harmful to people is called normosis.

In this way, the person manages to numb himself with happiness at that moment that reproduces some expected behavior (such as photos abroad, body within beauty standards and other social ills that are reproduced in favor of ego nutrition).

Faced with this, we need a lot of courage to escape the matrix, follow a more autonomous path, look at the whole and expand possibilities.

Anyway, I think that there is the beginning of the thinking of the superior man and the real contemplation of life.

Jorge Gomes.

Pedagogue.