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Norm Quotes

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Norm Quotes

“Questions like “Is this normal?” or “Am I weird?” reveal how deeply the concept of being “normal” is embedded in the subconscious of the ordinary majority. They don’t mean “Is this ordinary?” or “Am I a product of a photocopy?” when they ask these things, of course. In fact, they are not even consciously trying to conform to norms, even if their words might suggest otherwise. It is simply that they have internalized the association of the word “normal” with the idea of “good.”

GoodnessNormalGoodConformityNormAssimilationNormalityColonizationNormativityNormativeness
Author:Sov8840
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“Language has been weaponized in modern societies not just to communicate but to control thought. Terms like “success,” “confidence,” “normal,” “mental health,” or “self-improvement” are presented as universally desirable, but these words are saturated with invisible assumptions. When people use these terms, they are not merely communicating ideas but also adhering to a predefined set of beliefs and norms. For example, to say one is “successful” is not simply to express achievement but to buy into the societal belief that success is tied to specific metrics like wealth or social status. To use such language is already to submit to the ideology behind it.”

ValuesLanguageThoughtIdeologyCensorshipNormMind ControlNormalityFree ThoughtNewspeak
Author:Sov8840
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“There exists a culture shared even by those who are dissatisfied with mass culture, and it is among the most dangerous precisely because it is dazzling—deceptive. It is a culture that belongs to those who are "dissatisfied with the world as it is." This manifests in the following ways: They still carry a certain belief and hope in humanity. If they suffer, they might dream that their suffering will one day “be heard by everyone.” Through their works, they may fantasize about becoming popular. They might romanticize the psychiatric term "trauma." They might aim to "fix and recover" things or people. They might set their minds on leaving a "meaningful impact" and become activists. They might frequently “discuss” on philosophy forums. They might be aiming at “dark vibes.” They might cling to mottos like “forever alone.” They might refer to themselves as "just a random book lover.” They might have interests in “just some random weird stuff.” They might still be screaming into the void. They might try to “prove their depth” publicly. They might refer to themselves as "lost souls" to the point of weariness, even internalizing this very term—coined by the system to reduce by classifying them—implying a form of domesticated rebellion. And so on. These supposed outsiders are actually on the inside, worshipping at the altar of visibility, validation, and vague worldly hope. Their beliefs—“art-as-cure,” “literature-as-refuge,” “activism-as-purpose”—are not radical to the point of exile but packaged and predictable. They don't reject the system; they only ask to be understood within its boundaries. They weep, but with an eye to applause. They write, but always with a publisher in mind. They compose, but just to make money. They mourn, but only to be noticed. They claim detachment, but still speak as if begging to be liked and heard. They imagine themselves as “wild,” but only within the categories that subcultures and language allow. After all, there are two ends to the ruins: on one end, these kinds of “loners” who are still tied to conventional wisdom; and on the other, the utterly unknown, mystic, cosmic, and free spirits who have transcended everything human.”

CultureRebellionCollapseConventionalNormAlienationOutsiderSubcultureHomogeneityCommodification
Author:Sov8840
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“...and once people start to believe in these categories, their imagination becomes domesticated. Since capitalism doesn't only shape lives but also identities, they begin to critique themselves using the system’s own logic—feeling guilt for not being “productive,” anxiety for not being “attractive,” or shame for not being “confident and sociable.”

ValuesInfluenceIdentityCapitalismUnconsciousNormNormalityColonizationSelf HateAbsorbtion
Author:Sov8840
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“Because of the unlimited potential packed within each person, attaining greatness should have been the norm, not an oddity.”

GreatnessNormUnlimited PotentialOddity
Book:Soft Skills That Make or Break Your Success: 12 soft skills to master yourself, become a team player, and lead your company to absolute success
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“I have never said, as is sometimes believed, or even suggested that lower-class children should not learn the so-called educated norm of the Portuguese language of Brazil. What I have said is that the problems of language always involve ideological questions and, along with them, questions of power.”

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Book:Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters to Those who Dare Teach
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“I suppose it's not a social norm, and not a manly thing to do - to feel, discuss feelings. So that's what I'm giving the finger to. Social norms and stuff...what good are social norms, really? I think all they do is project a limited and harmful image of people. It thus impedes a broader social acceptance of what someone, or a group of people, might actually be like.”

PeopleThinkingGivingFeelsFeelingsBodyMightSocialStuffRelationshipGroupsAcceptanceProjectsFingersThings To DoNormManlySocial NormsSocial Acceptance
Book:Trouble (poetry, contemporary)
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“The changing styles are the expression of a restless search for something which shall commend itself to our aesthetic sense; but as each innovation is subject to the selective action of the norm of conspicuous waste, the range within which innovation can take place is somewhat restricted. The innovation must not only be more beautiful, or perhaps oftener less offensive, than that which it displaces, but it must also come up to the accepted standard of expensiveness.”

ActionBeautifulSubjectsFashionStyleExpressionWasteStandardsInnovationCome UpAcceptedRangeAestheticOffensiveNormRestlessSelective
Book:A Veblen Treasury: From Leisure Class to War, Peace, and Capitalism
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“There are clear differences between child and adult artistic activity. While the child may be aware that he is doing things differently from others, he does not fully appreciate the rules and conventions of symbolic realms; his adventurousness holds little significance. In contrast, the adult artist is fully cognizant of the norms embraced by others; his willingness, his compulsion, to reject convention is purchased, at the very least, with full knowledge of what he is doing and often at considerable psychic cost to himself.”

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Book:Art, mind, and brain: a cognitive approach to creativity
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“Las Vegas doesn't allow ( tourism ) to dictate the social norms of their community. We don't have to be a boring town that no one is willing to come to. ( But, ) we can't let tourism be the reason for not taking action. Accountability is not there. As a community we can be different. We don't have to be what our visitors are. We can work at policies that will make us a vibrant healthy resort community.”

DifferentReasonActionSocialCommunityPolicyWillingCommunicationHealthyTownsBoringAccountabilityNormResortsVegasLas VegasTourismTaking ActionVisitorsSocial Norms
Author:Eric Thomas
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“All attempts at law, all religion, all ethical norms might be nothing more than attempts by the weak to restrain the strong. Then, within the law, arise the new strong, who subvert the law for their own ends of power and family interest, leaving the old strong outside their circle to pursue the waiting possibilities which they call crime. The weak, the cowardly, the decent ones, live between these groups.”

EndsMightLawStrongWaitingInterestGroupsCrimePossibilityWeakLeavingCirclesArisePursueDecentEthicalNormCowardly
Book:Brute Orbits
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“What, by a word lacking even in grammar, is called amorality, is a thing that does not exist. If you are unwilling to submit to any norm, you have, nolens volens , to submit to the norm of denying all morality, and this is not amoral, but immoral. It is a negative morality which preserves the empty form of the other.”

IfsDoeFormMoralityNegativeEmptyPreservesSubmitLackingNormImmoralGrammarUnwillingAmorality
Book:the Revolt of the Masses
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“By characterizing the use of illegal drugs as quasi-legal, state-sanctioned, Saturday afternoon fun, legalizers destabilize the societal norm that drug use is dangerous. They undercut the goals of stopping the initiation of drug use to prevent addiction.... Children entering drug abuse treatment routinely report that they heard that 'pot is medicine' and, therefore, believed it to be good for them.”

ChildrenStatesUseFunGoalHeardDangerousDrugAbuseMedicineAddictionBe GoodReportsTreatmentIllegalPotAfternoonSaturdayStoppingEnteringNormInitiationDrug AbuseDrug UseIllegal DrugsUndercutSaturday Afternoon
Author:Andrea Barthwell
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“The tribalizing power of the new electronic media, the way in which they return to us to the unified fields of the old oral cultures, to tribal cohesion and pre-individualist patterns of thought, is little understood. Tribalism is the sense of the deep bond of family, the closed society as the norm of community.”

WayLittlesCultureCommunityMediaFieldsReturnUnderstoodPatternsNormUnifiedTribalismCohesionElectronic Media
Book:Media Research: Technology, Art and Communication
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“Many, and I think the determining, constitutive facts remain outside the reach of the operational concept. And by virtue of this limitation this methodological injunction against transitive concepts which might show the facts in their true light and call them by their true name the descriptive analysis of the facts blocks the apprehension of facts and becomes an element of the ideology that sustains the facts. Proclaiming the existing social reality as its own norm, this sociology fortifies in the individuals the "faithless faith" in the reality whose victims they are.”

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Book:One dimensional man: studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society
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“The only ‘realistic’ prospect is to ground a new political universality by opting for the impossible, fully assuming the place of the exception, with no taboos, no a priori norms (‘human rights,’ ‘democracy’), respect for which would prevent us from ‘resignifying’ terror, the ruthless exercise of power, the spirit of sacrifice … if this radical choice is decried by some bleeding-heart liberals as Linksfaschismus, so be it!”

IfsHumansHeartPoliticalSpiritChoicesDemocracyRightsImpossibleSacrificeExerciseAssumingHuman RightsTerrorRadicalExceptionRealisticNormRuthlessTabooBleedingUniversalityBleeding Heart
Author:Slavoj Žižek
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“Norms appearing in the form of law entitle actors to exercise their rights or liberties. However, one cannot determine which of these laws are legitimate simply by looking at the form of individual rights. Only by bringing in the discourse principle can one show that each person is owed a right to the greatest possible measure of equal liberties that are mutually compatible.”

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Author:Jurgen Habermas
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“Without the values at the core of Christianity and other world religions, without moral norms that have been shaped over millennia, people will inevitably lose their human dignity. One must respect every minority’s right to be different, but the rights of the majority must not be put into question.”

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Author:Vladimir Putin
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