What is normal?

[JSlayerXero]

Recently this question has been bothering me. What is normal? What counts as normal? What makes something normal?

Is normal mundane? Does this mean for something to not be normal you have to just not care when you see or hear it? If everybody walked around with a shotgun handing off their backs nobody would bat an eye because that's considering "normal" for the neighborhood. At least, nobody that lives there would think it odd. If somebody then has a sword over his back, however, people would pay attention because it breaks from the "normal" order of things. Does this mean that you're only supposed to think about normal when something breaks away from it? What do you guys think about what it means to be "normal"?

[Supershroom]

Well, I have some simple answers for you.

A real or complex matrix is called normal if there exists a unitary matrix U such that U*AU is diagonal.

A subgroup is called normal or normal divisor if it's closed under conjugation.

A ring is called normal if it's free of zero divisors and if it equalizes with its integral closure in Quot(R).

A field extension L/K is called normal if there exists F ⊆ K[X] such that L is the splitting field of F over K.

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Truth be told, that's a very deep question you have here. In my terms, it's a terminology which grows from a certain "consens" of humanity about what is good, what is bad and what is usual. It's a filmsy word, the limits between "normal" and "unnormal" are fluent, and you shouldn't give too much about philosophical, in fact esoteric, discussions.

Living like "I'm deciding what's normal" is bad, just as living like "I don't care about what's normal". I'm just trying to find a good middle way, as usual. Maybe Doram or something has a better answer to give.

[JSlayerXero]

I'm not necessarily expecting a solid, concrete answer. I'm more asking to see what you guys think. I don't think on this subject too often. Sometimes I do though, so I thought I'd bring it up and see what comes of it.

[Bogdan]

Normal, by concept at least in my opinion is something at least the average of a certain number of people agree on. You mentioned guns, well around here, majority of people (or at least the minimum required) thinks it's normal to forbid anyone to carry any type of fire weapons, as long as they belong to police force, military or something related, otherwise it's outside the normal and most will automatically feel weird about those things.

Normality and it's standards are defined by a mass of people, or at least this is how it's supposed to be.

[~MP3 Amplifier~]

I don't actually believe normal is a thing. I just think people like to use the word normal to reassure themselves if they feel insecure.
In reality, I don't think anything is truly the 'same' or the 'norm'. Maybe a better term would be a majority or what's most common, but not normal.

[NanTheDark]

Also, like I said in the other thread, it refers to what most people is like.

And it's not necessarily a positive word. People shouldn't be striving to be just like everyone else.

[Doram]

This post by Doram was thumbed up by: 2

Bogdan (June 13th, 2015, 12:14 am) • Oranjui (June 13th, 2015, 12:18 pm)

[*Emelia K. Fletcher]

normal is whatever lets you be least noticed

[Doram]

You do have a good point, MK. If hiding is your goal, then being just like everyone else will help with that (and it's an easy goal to choose in the toughest social part of your life - school as a teenager/high-school). The problem with hiding, is that you can spend your whole life doing it, and your uniqueness doesn't go away, and eventually, not using your uniqueness builds up, and explodes from lack of use. It's called a Mid-Life Crisis. You've compacted yourself and denied yourself for a lifetime, and that's not satisfying for any human being, and your uniqueness explodes in a bunch of "irrational" behavior. Look at the psychology of the Mid-Life Crisis. It all boils down to having spent too much time making the safe, boring, and normal choices, and not being exceptional enough to experience exceptional things. This is not an uncommon thing, and it teaches us one thing: Humans have a need to be unique and exceptional. It's our point. It's our greatest success, and our greatest satisfaction. Being unique and getting recognized and appreciated for our uniqueness is the greatest achievement we can imagine. It's called Fame. You are famous when you are so unique and awesome that the whole of the species recognizes and appreciates it.

I am not joking when I say that being unique is important to us as a species. Screw normal.

[Harmless]

Though being unique and actually being a positive contribution to the society are two different things.

Should I rob a bank or take a life and get noticed because it doesn't make me normal?

On the other hand, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. There needs to be a balance somewhere. In this case, normal helps create that balance by nullifying overly crazy aspects of people.

We can't expect ourselves to be so different from humanity and become superheroes. We're only human. How we utilize our balance for the good of society (and ultimately ourselves) is, what I believe, ideal.