There will be those who want to go back to normal – I am not one of them.

As I write, it is the second day of winter here in Australia. It is morning and I have just returned from a walk. The air was crisp this morning and only a few white wisps wandered across the blue sky. I love winter. Growing up and living in Ireland for 25 years I have never managed to get used to the humidity of Queensland’s long summer. The summers have gotten hotter. When I first came to Australia I did love the storm that would inevitably come in the afternoon after a warm and muggy busy day. I would watch the dark clouds form and sit on my balcony to watch the light show that would follow and then the downpour of rain. That smell of rain when it first hits the shrubs, the earth and the trees is a beautiful one. Sometimes, if it was a really hot day I would run out and embrace its relief. The drop-in temperature would be immediate. We don’t get these storms on a regular afternoon anymore. Something is not normal.

Now we are living in what many are calling “The New Normal”. Working from home. Social distancing. I hear people say they can't wait to get back to normal. I can. In fact, I don’t want to go back to normal. I don’t want the world to go back to normal.

Normal at the office

Politics at work. Hierarchal attitudes. Those who think they have status and power and exert it at work. They tend to spend long hours at work because outside of it that status normally disappears. Meeting lovers. Those who love the noise and bustle. The workplace bully. The plotters and schemers. The gossips. The people who define their lives by their presence in the office. Those who strut the strut, talk the talk but who never walk the walk. For some reason, they are loudest at their keyboards. Those who walk by others in a corridor without a greeting because you are not important to them. Those who are addicted to coffee down the street. These people will be desperate to get back to normal. I won't.

Normal Government

Back to being in a 24-hour election cycle even though there may be years to the next election. Politicians spinning lies and mistruths. Abhorrent behaviour in our houses of parliament. Rorts. Cover-Ups. Gotcha moments. Travel expenses. Awarding themselves pay rises. Brown paper bags. Power. Government assassinations. Leadership spills. Hubris. Leaks to the media. Dog whistling. Creating fear for votes. Protecting our borders. Locking humans on islands – out of sight out of mind. Promises. National debt. Two-party systems. No real action on the existential crisis of our lifetime – Climate Change.

“Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.” – George Carlin

Normal society

Fear of the other. The subjection of the minority. Welfare that barely keeps people alive. Justice for the rich. “The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there just to scare the shit out of the middle class. Keep 'em showin' up at those jobs.” – George again

Us versus them. War on terror. War on drugs. War on each other. ‘The more you can increase fear of drugs, crime, welfare mothers, immigrants, and aliens, the more you control all of the people. That’s the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody’s going to be against and everybody’s going to be for. Nobody knows what it means because it doesn’t mean anything” - Chomsky

Profit before people

Corporates sacrificing the health of the planet and its inhabitants for a bigger bank balance. Turning a blind eye to the consequences of their destructive, exploitative practices. The worst of them are committing atrocities that go beyond the realm of objectionable into criminal, dumping toxic chemicals without regard to public health, and employing child labour.

I don’t want normal back.  I want change. Change for my children. Hope for theirs.

The protesters across the United States do not want to go back to normal. The climate activists around the globe do not want to go back to normal. The poor and the marginalised don’t want normal. Refugees seeking safe shelter around the world do not want normal.  People are waking up. People are mobilising.

The normal world is getting afraid.

“The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.” Che Guevera