More Normal Than Normal

Click to see Tyrell Discussing Replicants

“More normal than normal” was a phrase I learned while doing social service work. It was stolen and reworked, from all things, the Blade Runner movie. The saying applied to those out there in the world who are slightly afflicted with mental retardation, schizophrenia or Asperger's and were high functioning enough to make their way in the world. But they'll also have just enough of those slight oddities that can tip off the “normal” world as to who they are. Those tip offs invite instant and long lasting judgment.

I can remember advising a few clients to dress a bit more conservatively in order to create an impression of normal. Sweat pants and tops with tomato stains on them were a dead giveaway. For the guys, longer hair was actually better due to the time old fashion of buzz cutting anyone who spent enough time in institutions or hospitals. The women we'd tell to fashion their hair to a more adult look versus the way you'd do it for an eight year old. We tried to make them look and act like loan officers at your local bank in order for them to be accepted more easily.

These little things actually did soften any rigid appraisal. If it was known that the person was afflicted somewhat, the “nice look” would help still.

*****

Now, “more normal than normal,” change it to “more competent than competent” for us unaffected people in the workaday world.

I was talking to a late 20's something women not too long ago about her work. She was an actuary (actuaries figure out the odds for insurance companies; which cities may default, who will slam their car into a tree drunk) for a large insurance corporation based in Warwick. The firm used to or still is using Snoopy as a spokes-dog. Are these hints obvious enough?

OK. The was going on about how she's sick and tired of the culture within the organization. Every day she has to balance her dress between conservative, sexy and fashionable. She has to make sure her speech isn't affected by the swearing that'll slip past her lips. Any off-corporate subjects she speaks of, like “How was you weekend?” has to be self-censored. What she really did that weekend was to have a girl's weekend at Attitash Ski resort, get drunk and try to score a cute looking guy for the night. Those truths she has to shove deep down at the Monday “weekly action meeting” they have. The topics are so bland they could be white bread with mayo.

“I'm on stage, I'm doing a four act play with an opera somewhere in the middle every day.” she tells me.

“I'm not kidding, it's a major act. Sure, the work I do isn't an act but everything else around it seems to be. I have to come off as this little nerdy, science girl who is a math whiz. And I swear, the culture around us is always looking for some way to trip us up, either individually or our section. The upper management it seems are conducting guerrilla wars to “stress test” us with change to see which section fails or who in the entire organization fails. It's bad enough we're trying to do our job without someone tossing in a monkey wrench to see which of us can't handle it...They actively seek out ways to winnow away any of our weakest links. Even if that weakest link is decent enough because they excel at one particular thing and in general are 'decent enough' at everything else.”

“Guess what they also expect of us...they want to know how we're “bettering ourselves” outside of work. They love to hear that we're competing in some sort of way for the gold out there. It could be a bike race, a 5k run or a hobby that can be judged with Blue Ribbons...and they want to hear that you won.”

“I'm sick of 'perfect.'” she finally says.

Yeah, I'd be sick of that too, if taken to that extreme. I'm not perfect, not by a million miles, add to that my black sense of humor and eclectic interests. I wouldn't survive amongst a bunch of gray suited stiffs who brag that their weekend consisted of taking their happy, normal wife and kids to a happy, normal museum and had a happy normal time. I'd be talking about the cool way hydroponics works, only because it's that interesting. I'd know that their little minds would busily churn that information over to something like...I have a grow-op in my house.