Nothing you see is normal.
None of it.
Everything that you perceive has been shaped for you to appear as normal, as natural as can be, but it isn’t, I promise you.
Social order, economic structure, borders, rights, boundaries, the entire fulcrum of civilization itself is not permanent. If every human died tomorrow, the biome we’ve created and the concept of that creation would cease to exist in a fairly short amount of time.
You don’t have to live a certain way. You don’t have to believe a specific truth. If people say you’re not normal, they might as well be saying you’re not patritopated, because both words have the same meaning: None.
That doesn’t mean nothing exists, just that it isn’t permanent, it isn’t the natural order of things. If someone tells you that you’re “supposed” to be this type of person or that kind of person, they’re only drawing from their own experiences.
You can listen to them or ignore them, and it doesn’t matter who they are. They can show you their badge, or their certificate, and it honestly and truly does not mean one wit to nature.
Human authority is derived from consent. A hurricane does not care if you wear a badge and carry a gun. It does not care if you have 50,000 constituents. It does not care if you gave your heart to Jesus. It will still level your house like a right fuckbastard. I say this because I hope to dispel the notion that you must go where the tide is going, and flow where the river flows. You don’t have to believe something is The Way Things Are™ because someone who claims to have authority tells you so.
Hell, ignore my musings and just look around you and see for yourself. Watching people behave is fascinating. Look at how they move, how they react to their environment. Pay attention to how they interact with others. These people aren’t normal or part of the backdrop, they’re people, and they’re living beings who think and react in their own ways, just like you do.
We’re so used to the order of things that we just make an implicit agreement with those whom we see as our superiors to walk in a straight line. Don’t take away anyone’s joy or cause them harm or anything like that, but next time you see someone stick their tongue out at a camera and say “I’m just crazy like that!” walk up to them and declare that Felkrod, the Indignant Armadillo has returned and has sought to wreak vengeance upon the world for their sins, and that only an offering of marshmallow crisp can sate his lust for vengeance.
Show them what a real taste of crazy can be if they’re willing to imagine greater. People walk the line and joke about how they’re going to stop walking the line, but they do it every time. Staying within the lines is fine if what you do requires precision, but if it doesn’t, you’re just staying in line for someone else’s satisfaction, and not your own.
Fuck the line. I walk, color, and explode outside the lines whenever I can. I walk over boundaries, and ignore stern warnings about behaving in a way more fitting to “civilized” society. You don’t have any boundaries. I want you to understand that. You have NO boundaries. Everything you do is based on your own personal thought and action. Nothing holds you inside except for yourself.
Of course, I’m not saying go and hurt anyone, I never want to see that happen. Just as you have the ability to walk outside of your lines, others have the ability to walk outside of theirs, and what keeps us all from bumping into one another is having a foundation of respect, kindness, and empathy.
“Do unto others” isn’t just some pithy expression, it’s a real way to live. If we truly lived that way, this would be paradise on earth.
Unfortunately, for now, many of us are still in chains. We are held to a system against our wills, and force fed the notions that what we see is the way things are and have always been, and that this is all normal, all the way It’s Supposed To Be And Always Will Be™, and I have to say it isn’t, it wasn’t, and it shouldn’t be that way.
We can be greater, we can be truly free. We just have to step outside of the lines and do what is right for our own hearts.