The Facade Of Stability: Understanding Hypernormalization In Global And Domestic Contexts – OpEd

Alexei Yurchak, a well-known Russian historian, coined the term “hypernormalization” in his notable work Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation. He used the term “hypernormalization” to describe the state of Soviet society during the late years of the USSR, specifically in the 1980s. In his book, Yurchak described how the Soviet regime presented itself as functional or normal on the surface, as if nothing was wrong, even though the system was collapsing and was simply out of touch with the realities of its citizens. Yurchak noted that In the Soviet Union, people were living in a state of ‘hypernormalization,’ where the system was in crisis, and everyone knew that the system was in crisis, yet people continued to accept the official narrative of stability.

Writing about this, he stated: “What tends to get lost in the binary accounts is the crucial and seemingly paradoxical fact that, for great numbers of Soviet citizens, many of the fundamental values, ideals, and realities of socialist life (such as equality, community, selflessness, altruism, friendship, ethical relations, safety, education, work, creativity, and concern for the future) were of genuine importance, despite the fact that many of their everyday practices routinely transgressed, reinterpreted, or refused certain norms and rules represented in the official ideology of the socialist state. For many, “socialism” as a system of human values and as an everyday reality of “normal life” (normal’naia zhizn’) was not necessarily equivalent to “the state” or “ideology”; indeed, living socialism to them often meant something quite different from the official interpretations provided by state rhetoric.” 

To explain this paradox, Yurchak created the term “hypernormalization.” “Hypernormalization” refers to the state in which people in a society continue to live and function according to rules or norms that they know are fundamentally dysfunctional or not genuinely effective. Still, they accept them as the only possible reality. This concept is extremely relevant today. 

Given the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the U.S. presidential elections, and the global social and political atmosphere, the present systems in the United States and Europe render a similar acceptance of dysfunction or absurdity, maintaining a facade of normality even when the underlying reality is far from ideal. This facade hides serious issues that are being overlooked, creating a dangerous illusion of stability.  

Reuters has reported more than 40,000 Palestinians dead, with most being civilians. Additionally, 2.3 million Palestinians are displaced from their homes. The genocide is widely streamed across all major social media networks, where the world witnesses self-reported videos and statements from Israeli officials and soldiers, exposing their crimes against humanity. The media in the West and the government press in the United States of America and some European allies of the state of Israel continue to create the perception of peace stabilizers whereas this is far from the reality.  

Despite this, the United Nations and world leaders continue to debate Palestinian suffering, the United States continues to veto a ceasefire call, and European leaders focus on the Russia-Ukraine conflict while siding with Israel in its ongoing genocide of Palestinians. As the political leaders perform daily their roles in the media and the United Nations, each day, the Palestinians continue to die in large numbers. This situation is further reflected by crackdowns on anti-war protestors and the rise of right-wing political movements destabilizing their own social and political fabric, which reflects a broader trend of ignoring pressing humanitarian crises. 

The Western bloc refrains from placing sanctions against the aggressor state of Israel. The act of sanctioning would signal to the world “humanization” of Palestinians, which the state of Israel has successfully dehumanized to a point that 40,000 Palestinian deaths and counting has not pushed humanity to put an immediate stop to the genocide. As one notable author, Paulo Freire puts it in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “Concern for humanization leads at once to the recognition of dehumanization, not only as an ontological possibility but as an historical reality.” In simple terms, concern for humanization brings awareness of dehumanization as both a potential and a historical reality. As individuals recognize the extent of dehumanization, they may question whether humanization is still possible, suggests Freire. The very attention to humanizing Palestinian suffering constantly draws attention to the effort that has been put in by the Western bloc and the state of Israel to dehumanize them.  

The constant shift in political realities of today by those who are attempting to control history and people and those attempting to function out of the paradoxical nature of politics and social realities has created a hypernormalized world that we live in. This “hypernormalized” world is a result of extreme alterations and manipulations of social and political realities, making it difficult for people to discern what is truly real or authentic. 

Amanda J. Crawford, an assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut stated in “Seeking Truth in an Age of Lies,” that “We live in an era in which our sources of information are splintered. Fake news, conspiracy theories, and propaganda compete alongside legitimate reporting online. And the sad reality is that many of our fellow Americans are far less interested in truth than they are about promoting their own agendas, beliefs, or political tribe. Sometimes, there are news outlets that fall into this, too.” This has given way to hypernormalization. 

An example of this simulated and artificial sense of normalcy is highlighted by the on-going presidential race in the United States. Republicans and Democrats in the United States held celebratory four-day conventions in addition to their campaign events. These events, which project an image of political stability and unity, are also disconnected from the real issues people face both domestically and globally. While these conventions display high-energy celebrations of the political elite, they mask the fact that nothing is normal in the most powerful and most politically functional country on earth as its citizens are as much disconnected from the universal human values as its politicians. The reality of the ongoing genocide in Palestine is ignored as political elites engage in celebrations detached from the suffering and crises at hand, in which they are complicit in. The celebration of political triumph in the name of “freedom” and “democracy” is paradoxical with what these two terms have done to the rest of the world. The Democratic National Convention that prides itself on inclusivity, freedom, and all other charged words deliberately neglected Palestinian voices but only highlighted the Jewish voices. This is not inclusivity and justice – it is only a disconnect from the objective reality. 

Yurchak raises a question in this context that, “What should we make of these acts of mass participation and support in which people regularly paid little attention to the literal meanings of the ritualized acts and pronouncements in which they participated? Can these acts be described as pure masquerade and dissimulation, practiced in public for the gaze of the state and collective surveillance? Here, he questioned how to interpret mass participation in rituals and public acts where people often ignored the literal meanings of what they were doing. He points out that people, instead of seeing these acts as mere pretense or performance for the state’s benefit, he suggests in his book that this pretense had a different kind of importance. The importance can be understood by looking at how these rituals and statements were created, spread, and understood, rather than just focusing on their surface meanings.  

Further elaborating on this Yurchak writes, “One common attempt to explain how ideological texts and rituals function in contexts dominated by unchallengeable authoritative discourse whose meanings are not necessarily read literally is to assert that citizens act “as if ” they support these slogans and rituals in public, while privately believing something different. Underlying this model are theories of mimicry and dissimulation.” To explain this, Yurchak indicates how ideological texts and rituals work in environments where official discourse cannot be questioned, citizens publicly act like they support these ideas while privately holding different beliefs. This explanation is based on theories of mimicry and pretending. 

Yurchak draws the attention to whether mass participation in state rituals, where people often ignore the literal meanings, should be seen as just pretending for the state’s benefit. These acts have deeper significance based on how these rituals are created and spread amongst the masses. He challenges the idea that people simply act publicly supportive while privately dissenting. In a system as such, a performance is put up where the actors act according to their role and the audience play their part while holding a different view altogether. 

In the last two decades, the modern world has seen little stability. With the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Pakistan, and now Palestine, the countries, the future of their people, and any direction for these societies has been ruined. Behind the ruin of each country were lies and ideals that were never going to work nor designed to work; however, a facade of stability was created, which the political elite and the people knew was never going to work. With wars, our world has seen an economic collapse, the economic meltdown of 2008. 

The “Occupy the Wall Street” movement came and vanished without making any impact. The economic inequalities have widened. The whistleblowers, Julian Assange and Edward Snowden were made fugitives, and society went along with the narrative of the political elite. US airman Aaron Bushnell who lit himself on fire in front of the Israeli embassy in Washington while being part of the armed forces of the United States acted to break out of a hypernormalized system. Similarly, most social and political movements started and vanished without any social impact. Amidst the illusion of political stability, two radicals, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange attempted to expose how unreal the political veil of stability was.  

The wars have made the world further unsafe and unstable, and behind these wars were architects, the political elite, and the technology suppliers who fueled the wars. These individuals roam free; however, our society keeps functioning as if nothing ever happened.  

The political elite’s deliberate blindness to their complicity in the Palestinian genocide is evident. It is American and European-supplied bombs that are killing the Palestinians. It is American and European policies that are allowing Benjamin Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet to starve, massacre, and displace the Palestinians. It is Nikki Haley who signed off on a lethal bomb to Israel with the words, “Finish them.”  

The world witnesses the celebration of Western democracy with famous stars hyping the crowd in the presidential nomination with political slogans like “Make America Great Again” or “Yes, We Can” again. This public hypnosis, as the public is equally responsible, blurs the fact that both Republicans and Democrats have shown clear complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. This reality is being ignored. When writing about the Soviet Nation, Yurchak wrote that Ideological proclamations and official policies were often disconnected from the everyday experiences of the Soviet citizens that they became a form of elaborate theater. It was a performance that was maintained more for the benefit of the system’s elites than for any real conviction in its ideals. 

The political elite or the establishment in the United States and Europe has nothing in common with the masses that face unemployment, financial difficulties, lack of housing subsidies, an affordable healthcare system, a debt-free education system, and an infrastructure that truly contributes to the quality life of citizens. It is easier for the United States government and European government to send billions of dollars of monetary aid and military aid to Ukraine and Israel, with one single executive signature than to pass a bill to relieve its own students of all the debt. The political elite is far from upholding its promises it makes during the presidential debates; however, equally surprising is the reality that despite the disconnect, the Republican and the Democratic conventions were filled with the people who simply pretended to align with the words uttered on the stage. This is what a hypernormalized society looks like.  

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, since the start of Israel’s war with Hamas on October 7, 2023, the United States has provided at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel. This includes $3.8 billion from a bill in March 2024 (in line with the current MOU) and $8.7 billion as additional support in April 2024. Democrats and Republicans have shown unanimous support for aiding the state of Israel with financial and military assistance. The crackdown on students and the public who have protested against the genocide of Palestinians reflects the imbalance between the social and political ideals of Western nation-states and the actions they permit. Meanwhile, the voices of protesting citizens continue to fall on deaf ears in the political chambers of the United States and European countries, which have ignored their citizens’ calls for action. 

The state of Israel, currently facing trial at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its genocide of Palestinians and crimes against humanity, is given unwavering support in the West. Germany, which is responsible for the Holocaust, shows the same tendencies towards a similar crime of Israel as it committed on its soil once. Germany’s brutal crackdown on its citizens for taking the moral stand against genocide to show Israel’s support to pardon itself for the Holocaust does not change the history that it is Germany that killed six million Jews.  

Prime Minister Netanyahu and his extremist cabinet are projecting this anger and frustration on Palestinians rather than asking for reparation from Germany, and Germany has shaken hands with the ones whom they refused to share their country with and committed a Holocaust against to pardon itself of the guilt of the Holocaust. Germany’s blind support of Israel does not pardon Germany of the crime Germany committed against humanity, and Palestinians are not the scapegoat of the anger and frustration of what Germany caused.  

Yurchak’s term “hypernormalization” correctly describes this situation, where both the political regime and its citizens become resigned to the status quo. Despite doubt and recognition of systemic issues, there is an acceptance and performance of normalcy, as if nothing is out of place. The U.S. criticizes Russia for not abiding by international law but rejects an ICJ ruling on Israel. Hypocrisy and disconnection from reality seem to be the norm that the political regimes and masses support, both knowing that this is abnormal and not the true reality. Listening to the US Government press briefings, Vedant Patel and Sabrina Singh, one knows the statements being made are false and cannot be believed; yet the journalists and audience listening to such statements entertain such an idea when both sides know, this is not the truth or the reality. It is merely what happens in a hypernormalized world.  

The Republican and Democratic conventions were filled with chants of “freedom.” Where is the freedom for students and the public to protest the very elite that governs in the name of “freedom” while acting as a global police force to spread it? This facade of stability and normalcy, while the system is deeply flawed and collapsing, is strikingly apparent. This creates a situation where the official ideology and everyday reality become increasingly disconnected. Hence, coining our present state of existence as “strange times” perfectly captures the abnormal situation. The mutual facade of normalcy between the public and the state is, in fact, abnormal. Just as Yurchak explained the Soviet condition, where everyone knew the system was failing and dysfunctional but maintained a facade of normalcy, a similar facade is maintained in the United States and Europe.  

Yurchak emphasized that the public acceptance of the state’s narrative or its ideology was a form of social performance. In this system, the individuals acted in accordance with the expectations set by the regime, while privately recognizing and discussing the discrepancies and failures of the system. Such discussions take place in private circles daily; however, the public continues to accept the state narrative and continues to be an audience to the political elite’s performance. 

Examining the general situation in the United States, this mask of normalcy becomes deeply apparent. For example, looking at homelessness in the United States, since 2016, overall homelessness, unsheltered homelessness, and chronic homelessness have all increased each year. The National Alliance to End Homelessness indicates in their report State of Homelessness: 2024 Edition that “On a single night in January 2023, more than half a million people (653,104) were experiencing homelessness across the United States.” The report also highlights a 2.1% rise in homelessness over the past year, a major jump since data collection began in 2007. In 2023, there were 70,642 more homeless individuals compared to 2022. The Continuums of Care (CoCs) reported an increase in homelessness. 

This is the current reality in the United States, where the political elite shows a disconnection from the reality on the ground but deems it important to send $3 billion in aid to Israel annually. This aid is used to harm the Palestinian population and reinforce political influence through organizations like AIPAC. While the United States government grills corporations on sharing any consumer data where a foreign government might be involved or a foreign government in general, it merrily opens its doors to AIPAC to welcome the influence of a foreign government, the State of Israel. 

Examining income inequality in the United States, Inequality.org reports that “Income disparities are now so clear that America’s richest 1% of households averaged 104 times as much income as the bottom 20% in 2020, according to the Congressional Budget Office.” What have the Republicans and Democrats done to address income inequality domestically, considering their role as caretakers of Israel? The focus on Israel over the welfare of its citizens, who live paycheck-to-paycheck and struggle to improve their social and economic conditions, underscores a severe disconnect between the political elite and the public. This disconnect illustrates a failing system that both the political elite and the public recognize yet continues to maintain a facade of stability and normalcy. 

Various sectors of society are taking massive hits from a deeply troubled political approach, leaving the public unable to effect meaningful change. This situation, indeed, highlights the growing disconnection between official ideology and everyday reality. When Kamala Harris or Donald Trump claims to understand the problems of common citizens, it becomes evident that there is no real connection between the political elite, the wealthy, and the public, which falls within the bottom 20 percent. Such a disconnect between the ground realities of society and constantly shifting realities has created a system where all change is stalled irrespective of how much one tries to change the oppressive nature of domestic and foreign political policies. 

The social and political systems that many of us are living in are part of a “hypernormalized” world where we all know how the political and economic system is failing people, but we play along thinking about what is happening in the world, politically and economically, and what is happening to Palestinians must go on to keep our societies from breaking apart into complete chaos. What continues to be ignored are social and political tensions and those tumultuous vibrations are seen and felt in the form of xenophobia, Islamophobia, migrant crises, racial and religious superiority, and political and social discontent that erupts into violence and returns to its masked position. The recent uprisings in Bangladesh, Indonesia, in various African nations, all are a testament to the fact that political elites and people, both knowing the failure of the systems, went along with it to keep the social and political balance. The sentiment remains amongst the people that nothing will change. 

The more visible chaos that is being witnessed is in the form of the Palestinian Genocide. Where political elites and technology pioneers are driving the world, whether it is amplifying the message of Israel and silencing Palestinians, removing the voices for justice globally, or amplifying the voice of one political candidate over the other, these strange times entered us into a world where the ruling elite has no direction, commitment, or dedication to their local citizens, and technologists who have herded us into virtual chambers have no commitment to any social or moral boundary as profits are above all values. 

Yurchak’s concept of “hypernormalization” illuminates how our societies have persisted in a facade of normalcy while the systemic dysfunctions and crises remain unresolved. This pretense of stability also reflects a broader systemic issue that Paulo Freire explores in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Our world, given the current political and economic atmosphere, has been divided into sectarians and radicals. Sectarians aim to keep control over history and people and the radicals try to liberate people by becoming part of the very struggles that people face, as Freire suggests. 

Freire, in the beginning of his book, mentions the two types of sectarians: the rightist and the leftist; nevertheless, sectarians rigidly adhere to their limited version of reality without really caring for systemic changes that radicals are engaged in. He writes, “This rightist and this leftist are both reactionary because, starting from their respectively false views of history, both develop forms of action that negate freedom. The fact that one person imagines a ‘well-behaved’ present and the other a predetermined future does not mean that they therefore fold their arms and become spectators (the former expecting that the present will continue, the latter waiting for the already ‘known’ future to come to pass).” Freire points out that sectarians maintain the status quo by resisting meaningful dialogue and reform because they confine themselves to their own reality, which is not the reality that radicals are part of. This we see with the Trump, Netanyahu, and Biden-Harris administrations, and a general political attitude of Western dominance over non-Western nations. 

However, radicals seek to challenge and transform oppressive systems by engaging in critical dialogue and action aimed at addressing the root causes of injustice. He further states regarding the sectarians and the radicals that, “On the contrary,” referring to sectarians, “closing themselves into ‘circles of certainty’ from which they cannot escape, these individuals ‘make’ their own truth. It is not the truth of men and women who struggle to build the future, running the risks involved in this very construction. Nor is it the truth of men and women who fight side by side and learn together, how to build this future—which is not something given to be received by people, but is rather something to be created by them. Both types of sectarians, treating history in an equally proprietary fashion, end up without the people—which is another way of being against them.” Freire foretells the fate of sectarians as a warning of their disconnect from the objective reality. 

Those who are attempting to transform the oppressive systems are either being silenced in the virtual world or being murdered in the physical world. In the context of “hypernormalization”, where the pretense of normalcy highlights deeper dysfunctions, the role of sectarians and radicals shows who stands to control the history in its present status and who are engaged in changing the oppressive nature of the political systems by being part of the struggle with those wishing to change the oppressive state. 

The hypernormalized acceptance of dysfunction in addition to the political and social apathy towards the genocide in Gaza and domestic crises such as homelessness and income inequality, aligns with the behavior of sectarians. The sectarians have no interest in progressing history. Their interest is to only keep history stagnated and confined to their subjective reality. These individuals and systems are more concerned with maintaining an illusion of normalcy than with addressing the fundamental issues at hand. 

Freire’s concept of radicals, on the other hand, provides a framework for understanding how to break through this facade. Radicals, in Freire’s ideas, are committed to challenging and dismantling oppressive systems through a pedagogy of liberation that seeks to engage critically with the status quo. They reject the hypernormalized acceptance of dysfunction and instead work towards genuine societal transformation. Freire highlights, “The radical, committed to human liberation, does not become the prisoner of a ‘circle of certainty’ within which reality is also imprisoned. On the contrary, the more radical the person is, the more fully he or she enters into reality so that, knowing it better, he or she can better transform it. This individual is not afraid to confront, to listen, to see the world unveiled.” 

He further adds, “This person is not afraid to meet the people or to enter into dialogue with them. This person does not consider himself or herself the proprietor of history or of all people, or the liberator of the oppressed; but he or she does commit himself or herself, within history, to fight at their side.” By adopting Freire’s ideas, one can understand the necessity for a critical, transformative approach in addressing the systemic issues that are constantly ignored, the real issues affecting the people, and people also moving on with the idea that everything is fine as long as they exist in this world. Just as Freire advocates for a pedagogy that empowers the oppressed to question and change their conditions, a radical rethinking and reformation of the systems that perpetuate injustice is required. 

Society and the political system have become so distorted and dysfunctional that most citizens have come to accept the false or misleading narrative presented to them as reality. There always is a disconnection between official narratives and actual conditions, leading people at home to live in a state where the official story is taken as the only possible reality, and the political elite and the people know that it is flawed. 

The current socio-political dynamics in the United States and Europe are marked by a persistent facade of normalcy amidst a profound crisis. We cannot continue to move forward in life in this abnormal way, pretending that the way the political elite is ruling the masses is acceptable and the way the masses are responding to the deceptive nature of politics is acceptable. We cannot celebrate and dance at presidential rallies and support any of the politicians who support and empower a force that is committing the genocide of Palestinians. Any administration that rules us in the United States of America or rules us in Europe and also meddles in affairs of foreign countries while neglecting domestic issues at home and supports a foreign country that practices apartheid, commits crimes against humanity, we cannot continue to go on with false chants of “freedom” and “democracy” while taking away the freedom and democracy of another foreign nation. This is not normal. Our society is not normal.