December 28, 2001
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Are You Normal?
You there. Are you normal? Do you consider yourself regular, average, and/or sane?
I have a theory that 90% of the population thinks they're different somehow. They usually think at least one of the following is true:
- They're just plain, old-fashioned nuts.
- They have a strange sense of humor.
- Their minds work in a weird direction.
- They have bizarre sexual fantasies/desires.
- They came from a dysfunctional family.
- Their current living situation is bizarre.
- Their intelligence, humor, common sense and/or driving ability is above average.
So, if 90% of us are weird, doesn't that make being weird normal? What about you? Are you normal?
- They're just plain, old-fashioned nuts.
Comments (13)
I am normal in at least four of those ways. At least I think I'm normal in those ways. This is way confusing.
i've had this very thought before. i have surrounded myself with so many "weird" people that i've started refering to most of them as "normal like me". this way everyone knows that i don't mean it in the traditional sense of the word normal.
Depends.
Who's askin?
I don't know ANYONE who comes from a fully functional family. I mean, really... what's that supposed to look like? I know one girl whose parents "dialog" and "share" all the time... and they are loony. Seriously. "I've gotta get away from these people" crazy. I think sanity is a matter of degrees. PAULTRGST wrote a bit about that yesterday...
Just wanted to stop by and say hello....and thanks for your kind words on my site.
That is an amazingly accurate theory and so happens to be one that I agree with.
Because nobody wants to label themselves as a conformist, everybody tells themselves that they're different in one of the ways that you've listed. The sad truth of it is that, 99% of the time, it's simply wishful thinking, leaving unfulfilled this impotent desire to be "someone who doesn't follow the crowd".
Seriously. When 50% of the population lives through divorce, what constitutes "dysfunction"? Freud aside, the statistics relating to "bizarre sexual fantasies" occur in so enormous a segment of the population that it really should no longer be considered "bizarre". And perhaps the worst and most oft-repeated item on the list, too many people confuse their sense of humor as being "weird" instead of "inane" (not that I'm a humor Nazi or anything...whatever floats your comedic boat, right?)
Anyhoo, thanks fer articulating something that has been burning my face for eons.
I'm very weird, and very normal, would have to say I fit all of the categories! LOL
I would like to think I'm normal and I guess some people would say I'm weird.
I fit into every single one of those categories. I must be very normal!
2,3,5,6,7 for me. sheesh.
Becky
I was diagnosed manic depressive when I was 23. I haad spent my whole life thinking my family was one big looney bin and that we were just really good at hiding it from the world. We were really good at hiding it, btw. But so is everyone else. That's what I learned in therapy. There is no normal, there is only undiagnosed.
normal comes from abnormal... you are only normal if you cannot be proven to be abnormal. or if you are completely perpendictular to a plane.
everyone's weird. humans are strange critters.....