In 1895, Emile Durkheim made the observation that โ๐ฒ๐๐ฒ๐ป ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐๐ผ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐ฎ๐ถ๐ป๐๐, ๐๐ต๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐น๐ฑ ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐น ๐ฏ๐ฒ ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ฒโ. Deviance being defined as any behaviour that goes against the norms, values and expectations of a society,
Then in 1993 American senator and sociologist Daniel Patrick Moynihan coined the phrase “๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ณ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฐ๐ ๐ฑ๐ผ๐๐ป” to describe how society tends to accommodate destructive behaviour by lowering standards.
In other words by lowering the bar society creates a new normal as to what is acceptable.
And so here we are in 2023 and the bar has not so much been lowered but abolished all together.
Think about the defining or rather redefining of just the last few years.
Truth has been redefined as relative and subjective to the point where everyone has their own truth so the concept barely exists.
Of course once truth has been redefined it stands to reason that the flip side of that coin, lies, must also be redefined.
You canโt have one without the other.
Marriage has been totally redefined. Having redefined marriage the iconoclasts and societal vandals and wreckers have moved on to redefining gender and sexuality and are now trying to redefine childhood through the prism of drag queens, like a lifestyle and gateway drug, grooming for sex with the aim of normalising pedophilia. And all presented as โfamily funโ
What do all of these redefinitions have in common?
They are all concerned about the individual. โItโs all about meโ Itโs all about accommodating and satisfying the whims, impulses, inclinations and urges and most important of all, the feelings, of the individual.
Itโs no longer about the broader good of society.
Crime too, in America at least, ย has been totally redefined.
In California you can shoplift in broad daylight with no one stopping you for fear of being charged with assault up to $950 and itโs no longer a felony but a mere a misdemeanour.
If you kill some one who is attacking and trying to kill you in your shop, ย the villain becomes the victim and could be charged.
Push someone into the path of an oncoming train, killing them in the NY subway, with the entire episode caught in video and you still walk free.
This is what both Durkheim and Moynihan were getting at. Defining deviancy down.
Weโve just seen over the last several years, a lot of redefinition compressed into a short space of time and itโs not over yet.
Far from it.