Recently I commented on a new, important book on this very subject. A tenured professor at the University of Oregon, Kari Norgaard, has written a book about what is considered “normal.” She explored a small, prosperous, well-educated Norwegian town, and teased out why the population was not taking sufficient actions to discuss and address the climate crisis. For her leadership, she was attacked on national radio by the extremist, Rush Limbaugh.

The moment I heard that many of Limbaugh’s followers were verbally attacking Prof. Kari Norgaard, I obtained and read her book, then had a coffee with this academic leader who is one of our experts on what is called “normal.” I’ll close with a copy of my review I wrote on Amazon.com about Kari Norgaard’s book, Living in Denial: Climate Change, Emotions, and Everyday Life.

This book has my absolutely highest recommendation on an urgent basis.

While this book clearly meets academic standards of scholarship, I found it very human: The author brings us into a small town in Norway that is prosperous and well-educated, and where iconic activities for Norway such as skiing and ice skating are becoming more difficult because of the climate crisis. We hear stories, and we get quotes.

Why does the local newspaper cover the odd weather, without including discussion about climate crisis?

Why in a town with so much citizen activism, is there so little local activism about one of the biggest threats ever caused and faced by humanity?

This book helps explain what is mistakenly called “normal” in our society. I say mistakenly, because what is generally called normal brought us into the ‘climate crisis,’ which along with other environmental devastation is our generation’s biggest challenge. Why are so many who are fully aware of the climate crisis, and that it is human caused, staying silent and inactive? Why is there this numbness?

It turns out what is called ‘normal’ has a lot going on beneath the surface, like one of the enormous icebergs that is slowly melting before its time.

Ultimately, this is a compassionate book, because the author recognizes the ‘100 percent’ nature of our all being both harmed by the climate crisis, and also having a role in contributing to this disaster as a society. But the author also goes further and calls for us all to hold one another accountable.

When one of the Norwegians interviewed in the book holds up a hand in front of his face and says his numbness comes from protecting himself a little bit… This becomes for me a visual symbol for the poignant denial we all face. This denial is not from ignorance. It is not from ignoring the disaster. The denial is coming from a deep-seated awareness of an unprecedented crisis.

This is my 36th year working as a human rights activist in the field of mental disability, so I am particularly interested in discussions about what is considered “normal.” Along with the book Collapse by Jared Diamond, I consider this to be one of the most important explanations. Professor Norgaard (who won tenure after the publication of this book) presents a rational, analytical approach that recognizes the importance of gut-level emotion.

Simply for speaking about the clearly illustrated stories in her book, Professor Norgaard was targeted by a media personality who has a proven track record of denigrating women leaders with disdain and distortion. Some of this individual’s listeners predictably turned to hate speech against Prof. Norgaard. She is one of the environmental heroes who some are seeking to silence, but thankfully she remains unbowed. The silver lining of this witch hunt, is that this controversy led to a front page headline in my local newspaper of Eugene, Oregon that brought this book to my attention. I had no idea Prof. Norgaard was at the University of Oregon.

Ironically, the media personality apparently thought this book was about him and others who bizarrely and sadly claim there is no human-caused climate crisis. However, this book is actually much more significant. This book is about 100 percent of all of us, including the majority of the population who understand and accept the sobering scientific evidence.

This book is about re-defining being human… Reading this compels us to all ask, “What can I do? What can we do?”

To the extent addressing the climate crisis needs the equivalent of a nonviolent D-Day, this book helps provide research on the terrain, the obstacles, the opportunities for the unprecedented astoundingly enormous response that is now undeniably required… that we may not do adequately… but that is undeniably required nonetheless.

I’ve already gotten several copies to give away, such as to my friend Patch Adams, the physician/clown who questions what is called normal, because of his support for Martin Luther King’s vision of an “International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.” Clearly, this book is one of the handbooks for that IAACM. Get it, read it, get more copies, talk it up… And act on it.

When you read this book, you will not just enjoy learning about a small town’s challenges, but you will be lighting a candle in a mysterious immense cave called ‘normal’. Know you are not alone. We are all there with you. 100 percent of us.

David W. Oaks, Director, MindFreedom International

Kari’s book on Amazon.

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There we were on 14 July 2012, walking down the winding path of the Oregon Country Fair, where tens of thousands every July have filled crowded paths through a woods full of music, crafts and food booths, lovingly stewarding the spirit of the 60’s since 1969. I was ushering Patch with a bullhorn, calling out, “Here comes Patch Adams, to accept an award for lunacy promotion!”

Dr. Adams was in his clown regalia for the walk: Pants pulled up to his armpits, strange grimace on his face, holding a big fake fish in front of his face to help motivate himself for his slow strange walk.

For those too young to know, Patch is a psychiatric survivor, physician and clown, who was the subject of an Academy Award winning film named after him and inspired by his life, starring comedian Robin Williams. Patch is the most famous leader in our MindFreedom International community, and has a network of thousands who seek truly deep change throughout our health care system.

Patch and I were headed down the Oregon Country Fair path to a gathering to give Patch an award (see photo on left) for his leadership of a vision created by Martin Luther King, Jr. that few people seem to have heard about:

MLK, in many speeches and essays, said the world may be in dire need of a new organization that MLK called, “The International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment” or IAACM. It was an laugh-line, but like many good jokes had logic and truth behind it. MLK said we all ought to be maladjusted to oppression, the question is can we be creative in our maladjustment, rather than self-destructive? Repeatedly, MLK said in a variety of ways, “the salvation of the world lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”

Well, in Patch’s hands that day was a fish.

Accompanying us on our walk through the Oregon Country Fair was Patch’s main leader for changing the mental health system, Carl Hammerschlag, a psychiatrist/author from Arizona. Carl called out occasionally on the path, “How many six-foot-six psychiatrists do you see in a pink ballerina outfit?” Because that is what Carl was wearing from head to foot, tutu included.

Does this kind of positive celebration of mental and emotional differences necessarily mean opposing rationality? As a leader for 36 years in what is often called the “mad movement,” I know some seem to assume that we are largely celebrating illogic and irrationality. I do not agree.

As a psychiatric survivor who has been through five institutionalizations, and quite a number of diagnoses, I can tell you that one of the tools for my own recovery was the use of logic, evidence, and rationality.

Today, here is a very simple and undeniable logic to consider: What is generally called “normal” by just about any common definition, is in fact causing a climate crisis, and countless other environmental disasters. I’m not saying all that is called “normal,” is bad, just that one of the worst spiritual illnesses to ever visit our planet Earth has that name: Normal.

Throughout human history, respected thought leaders such as Socrates have said the pursuit of wisdom begins by recognizing that none of us has a grip on reality, that we all know nothing with certainty. And now, the scientific jury is back, the evidence has been rationally considered, and the logic is irrefutable: Socrates was right. What is called “normal” may be guilty of Gaia-cide, the shredding of our precious planet’s web of life.

That’s why I have been saying that the slogan of the mad movement ought to be, “We are the 100 percent.”

So yes, when Patch and Carl and I navigate a crowded path of the Oregon Country Fair, bullhorn in hand, with Patch following his fish, and Carl prancing around in his pink tutu… Yes, it may look a tiny bit irrational. But logic is one of the strands motivating us, the logic that MLK brought to us all many times when he called for the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment. (IAACM).

Please take the next logical step, and ask yourself: “How can I best exercise my own leadership in the IAACM?

David W. Oaks
Eugene, OR

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