Maiden Voyage

I would like to begin my blog with a short "lecture" on the idea of deviance and normalcy.

The world is unfortunately populated by a great deal of deviance; and what is more dangerous than that deviance, is the attitude from which it springs. While individuality and personal interests are the spice of life, those without the proper will-power and set of skills abuse these luxuries and become what I call "Dangerously deviant." A term I've used for years now to describe those people who take their interests to an extreme that threatens their functionality. Everyone has seen this person. The stereotypical "nerd in the basement" comes to mind. The man who lives with his parents well into his forties and uses his income to furnish an anti-social lifestyle. Examples of this are rampant; in 2005 a man in South Korea decided that a video game was more important than his life and took his anti-social behavior to an extreme. He collapsed and died after a 50 hour gaming session left him exhausted. The saddest part of this all is that it is not the small minority. It is such a recognized threat that there are "rehabilitation" programs some even funded by Federal governments to cope with these behaviors.

As I mentioned, I feel that the attitude taken toward this level of deviance is almost as dangerous as the behavior itself. Members of these dangerously deviant groups are often selfsocialized to combat the likely arguments they will hear from detractors of their choice. "My anime collection is less harmful than your cigarette smoke." is a popular argument used by some dangerously deviant members of groups that are fans of the japanese animation style. This is an example of how the dangerously deviant have decided to arm themselves, and it is a maladaptive strategy. There are patches to help you stop smoking, there are programs to cope with chemical dependence, and there should be more methods of combatting dangerously deviant behavior.

While the argument presented above seems valid, when placed under the electron microscope of behavioral science, it becomes less powerful. These dangerously deviant behaviors are dubbed so because of the damage they inflict upon the social skills of those who act upon them. Unless you work in a Chili's restaurant, you undoubtedly have a designated "Smoking" area at your job. This area, while it seems arbitrary and unimportant, actually serves as a powerful social device. According to the principles of relationship formation in psychology, the most powerful indicators of the likelihood that you will form a relationship with someone are proximity, similarity, and frequency of interaction. With the combination of the fact that two people work together and both smoke we can assume a few things. Firstly, they live within a reasonable proximity. If you can commute somewhere for work, arrangements could be made so that you can use that same area as a base for social networking. Second, they have things in common; they work together, they smoke, if they hold the same position they are likely to have similar levels of education. These are all powerful factors for the formation of relationships. The only basic principle that can not be assumed is frequency of interaction, as that will vary due to schedule and amount of employees at a facility. For these reasons, even smoking, an activity which carries the stigma of cancer, heart disease, and child endangerment, is a more socially conducive process than these anti-social, dangerously deviant behaviors.

"Nothing's normal! What's normal anyway?" The plague of our time is contained in this short exclaimation which is heard countless times a day. The attitudes held by the general populace are, in sort, to be blamed on the media. Twenty years ago The Simpsons, now considered an American classic depicting the average American family, was a story of tragically maladapted individuals scraping by with hodgepodge strategies. In 1991 Bill Cosby called Bart Simpson "Angry, confused, and frustrated," and further elaborated that he was "A bad role model for children." The response from the creator of the show was a resounding agreement without apology, which drew criticism then, but has now become what we expect. In short, our society has engaged in what is called a "Slippery slope" in that our standard for acceptable behavior has slipped, and what was once questionable is now acceptable, and what was unthinkable has become only questionable.

I have no solution to the issue concerning dangerous deviance and returning to the norm, however I believe that more of our young behavioral scientists should be concerned with this issue. We've become a society of enablers and acceptors when we should be guiding forces in the lives of those who need us, those who are at risk for Dangerously deviant behavior.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read this. I am the Elitist and for now I am looking forward to a better world by looking back at one.