Alexei Yurchak coined the term “hypernormalization” to describe something I believe many of us here on Substack are feeling – even if we lack the words to adequately explain exactly what it is we are feeling. Yurchak coined the term in the 1980’s to describe the dominant narrative in the final stages of the Soviet Union – a country that ceased to exist on December 26, 1991. What hypernormalization described is that from the 0.01% to the very bottom of society everyone KNEW that the system was not working, everyone KNEW:
- that there was enterprise corruption;
- that each level of bosses were looting the system;
- that the politicians had no alternative vision;
- that the bosses knew that the people were well aware of this;
- that everything (EVERYTHING) was fake
However, lacking any alternative vision for a different kind of society, EVERYONE just accepted this complete and total fraudulence as “normal” – and that is just the way things kept going until they suddenly and dramatically didn’t.
Alexei Yurchak coined the term “hypernormalization” to describe something I believe many of us here on Substack are feeling – even if we lack the words to adequately explain exactly what it is we are feeling. Yurchak coined the term in the 1980’s to describe the dominant narrative in the final stages of the Soviet Union – a country that ceased to exist on December 26, 1991. What hypernormalization described is that from the 0.01% to the very bottom of society everyone KNEW that the system was not working, everyone KNEW:
- that there was enterprise corruption;
- that each level of bosses were looting the system;
- that the politicians had no alternative vision;
- that the bosses knew that the people were well aware of this;
- that everything (EVERYTHING) was fake
However, lacking any alternative vision for a different kind of society, EVERYONE just accepted this complete and total fraudulence as “normal” – and that is just the way things kept going until they suddenly and dramatically didn’t.
Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.