Social Norms and the Trickster Life

Sliding through the cracks and still prospering

The social norms that seem to guide most of us are not always normal for everyone. Behaviors that are abnormal for most people may be considered normal for a subgroup or subculture. For example, normal college student behavior may be to party and drink alcohol, but for a subculture of religious students, normal behavior may be to go to church and pursue religion-related activities. Subcultures may actively reject “normal” behavior, instead, replacing societal norms with their own. The Noble Trickster (NT) is particularly skilled at flowing through and creating a positive influence in these subcultures by being “freakier than the freaks” or when required the “most normal of the normal”.

Here is a Medium Story to introduce you to this series on Noble Tricksters.

When people do not conform to the normal standard, they are often labeled as sick, disabled, abnormal, or unusual, which can lead to their being marginalized or stigmatized. Most people want to be normal and strive to be perceived as such so that they can relate to society at large. Without having things in common with the general population, people may feel isolated. The “abnormal” person feels like they have less in common with the “normal” population, and have difficulty relating to things that they have not experienced themselves. Additionally, an abnormality may make others uncomfortable, further separating the abnormally labeled individual from the group.

Since being normal is generally considered an ideal, there is often pressure from external sources to conform to normality, as well as an inner pressure from an individual’s own intrinsic desire to feel included. For example, families and the medical community will try to help disabled people live a ‘normal’ life. However, the pressure to appear normal, while actually having some deviation, often creates a conflict. Sometimes an individual will appear normal, while actually experiencing the world differently or struggling with ordinary reality. When abnormality makes society feel uncomfortable, it is the exceptional person, often the NT, who will laugh it off to relieve social tension. This can get complex. A disabled person, for instance, may be given normal freedoms, but may have difficulty showing negative emotions. Society’s rejection of deviance and the pressure to normalize may cause shame in some individuals. Lastly, abnormalities may not be included in an individual’s sense of identity, especially if these abnormalities are unwelcome to their own sense of self.

When an individual’s abnormality is labeled as a pathology, it is possible for that person to take on both elements of the sick role or the stigmatization that follows some illnesses. Mental illness, in particular, is largely misunderstood by the population and often overwhelms others’ impression of an individual. The skilled NT is able to avoid and even transcend all of this.

The NT knows that what is viewed as normal can change, dependent on both time-frame and environment. Normality can be viewed as an endless process of a person’s self-creation and that same individual’s reshaping of the world.

Within this idea, it is possible to surmise that normality is not an all-encompassing term, but simply a relative term based on a current trend in time. Where the mathematical mind of the NT can most effectively use this concept to recreate their own sense of normal is through statistics. This is likened to the thought that if the data gathered provides a mean and standard deviation, over time these data that predict “normalness” start to predict or dictate it less and less since the social idea of normality is dynamic; For example over the last fifty years behavior in mating rituals or religious rituals have changed throughout the world. The “normal” way that these rituals are performed shift and a new procedure becomes the normal ones.

Daily life for the NT is an endless tightrope walk. It is a dance on a razor’s edge that requires the appearance of functionality and reality in a dysfunctional environment that is nothing but illusion passing for reality. Here the NT must often act insane to themselves in order to appear normal to the common person.

Through an extraordinary “applied social intelligence” the NT learns to be in the world but not of the world. The NT communicates in a verbal and non-verbal language of logical and rational symbols that is driven by heuristic messages and a sense of rapport with others. This is the nature of their “functional reality.” It is a reality that is neither, good nor bad, moral or immoral, nor even real in any sense other than that it is, in the short-term at least, a functional reality.

Here is an interesting story Dr Mehmet Yildiz

Cal Axe

Author: Lewis Harrison is a futurist, and professional forecaster. He is the Executive Director of the International Association of Healing Professionals, a philanthropic and educational organization that distributes free life lesson classes, mental health awareness vlogs, prepper guides, and self-improvement programs around the world.

Lewis is also a best-selling author, and former host of a radio show on an NPR affiliated station.

Here is a humorous promo for that show

Lewis created a game theory based Life Strategies Playbook and Mentoring Method which he offers at no charge. He has used this system to move individuals and organizations to the next level. His work in Applied Gamer-Thinking is revolutionary. (Game Theory, the source of his work has won numerous Nobel Prizes).

“Please reach out to me. I want to help you transcend your challenges by helping you to get clear on your intention, and your desired outcome by increasing effectiveness efficiency, precision, productivity, accuracy, and self-awareness”.

You can read all of his Medium stories at Lewiscoaches

“I am always exploring trends, areas of interest, and solutions to build new stories upon. Again, if you have any ideas you would like me to write about, just email me at [email protected] or check out all of my books, blogs, and videos through my portal www.asklewis.com