Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Being an Outlier in The New Normal


You are an outlier.  We're an outlier. I'm an outlier, too.

In statistics, an outlier is a value outside the median range - it's on the extreme edge of the curve. Being an outlier, you have taken on risks that others have deliberately avoided through concealment, denial, or ignorance. You, my friend, are the future.

Ideas used to be contained to geographic regions. Telecommunications and, in particular, the Internet, have allowed thought, ideas, and expression to radiate outward in all directions. Ideas concerning love, marriage, lasting relationships are now under critical inspection - all kinds of notions that found the bedrock of what western culture calls "love" is being re-evaluated by individuals and for themselves. 

When we look at alt.relationships like polyamory what we're looking at is the freedom of ideas. The digital age has brought us a new age of enlightenment, and with it, the ability to openly discuss, meet, express, and collaborate with others, on ideas that would otherwise have been repressed or taboo just 30 years ago. 

As an outlier, I feel I'm on the fringe of the "new normal" which removes predjudice and moral thought control in favor of freedom of thought, ideas, and expression. You can't stop the flow of ideas. Polyamory, or any form of alt.relationship, is the "new normal"; we are the new idea.

s1m0n

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't know that we're ever going to be the new normal, or if poly is actually new at all. At best, I'd say it's being reinvented as we speak, which is one of the reasons I'm so passionate about the relationship style I practice. It would be nice to just be "mildly odd" in the next decade, but I'd say that's still pretty optimistic.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I'm just saying that there is a spreading public consciousness and awareness about polyamory.

s1m0n