Hypernormalisation
Is a term coined by Alexei Yurchak, a Russian anthropologist who used the term in his 2005 book Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation.
Many of us know the experience of hypernormalisation without knowing there is a word for it.
“We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, we know they know we know they are lying, but they are still lying.” Attributed to Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn
When we normalise lies, corruption, genocide, apartheid, cruelty, hate and violence, when we know they are lying and they know we know, we have entered the hypernormal zone.
Above and beyond anything that constitutes normal.
The path to hypernormalisation is one little atrocity at a time. (https://syntropic.world/little-atrocities-the-path-from-integrity-to-self-deception-and-bad-business/)
Sleep walking into nasty. When horror becomes ho-hum, humanity and decency are at extreme risk; breakdown is imminent. We turn on each other.
Cruelty, hate, discrimination, vilification, cheating, lies, genocide. Not normal. Not acceptable.
It takes everyone to break the pattern, to say no. To name. Prosecute. Convict.
Call out every lie. Name every crime.
Photo July 18th 2025, Article written July 18th 2025
