Something Strange

[P. G. Tipps]

But you've nothing to compare it with.

Yes, that thought did cross my mind ...

However, some people might see little difference in scale of 'weirdness' between an adult couple talking to a doll and a middle-aged married man sometimes dressing up as a little girl in public.

Influential society today is more tolerant of, and often even promotes, what was once considered (and still is by the majority) abnormality and that is now considered to be normal in itself. Maybe that is the difference between now and former times?

Indeed, the former normal people in society are now often derided by the abnormal-apologists as themselves being abnormal and surely, therefore, should be shown the same level of understanding and tolerance by jean?

[Serial_Apologist]

Influential society today is more tolerant of, and often even promotes, what was once considered (and still is by the majority) abnormality and that is now considered to be

Knowing what a stickler for truth you always are, what statistics are you quoting there?

[MrGongGong]

Knowing what a stickler for truth you always are, what statistics are you quoting there?

Thinking that one is "normal" or even in "the majority" is a sign of delusion (of the fury?) IMV

[french frank]

Thinking that one is "normal" or even in "the majority" is a sign of delusion (of the fury?) IMV

It may be a sign of delusion, but it's surprising how many people take the view that 'most people' think the same as they do about a particular subject. Just as many people make the assumption that if anyone thinks differently from them or believes something different, that other person is mistaken.

[MrGongGong]

It may be a sign of delusion, but it's surprising how many people take the view that 'most people' think the same as they do about a particular subject. Just as many people make the assumption that if anyone thinks differently from them or believes something different, that other person is mistaken.

All very well
but "everyone" knows that La Monte Young is one of the 5 greatest composers of all time

[jean]

Normal/anbormal is a set of concepts to be avoided at all costs.

[MrGongGong]

Normal/anbormal is a set of concepts to be avoided at all costs.

I'm not sure about that
we have a "normal" setting on the washing machine

[vinteuil]

It may be a sign of delusion, but it's surprising how many people take the view that 'most people' think the same as they do about a particular subject. Just as many people make the assumption that if anyone thinks differently from them or believes something different, that other person is mistaken.

... o, I take the view that 'most people' most certainly do not think the same as I do about many subjects.

But of course I make the assumption that if anyone thinks differently from me or believes something different, that other person is mistaken.

If they think differently, then if I did not think they were mistaken, why would I think or believe what I do?

[french frank]

... o, I take the view that 'most people' most certainly do not think the same as I do about many subjects.

So do I. And I have seen that look of suppressed pity in their eyes …

But of course I make the assumption that if anyone thinks differently from me or believes something different, that other person is mistaken.

If they think differently, then if I did not think they were mistaken, why would I think or believe what I do?

Which is the logic behind my point: it explains why, it does not change the innate truth Concepts of even mild 'weirdness' may be explained in much the same way: not like me - a bit weird.

[P. G. Tipps]

It may be a sign of delusion, but it's surprising how many people take the view that 'most people' think the same as they do about a particular subject. Just as many people make the assumption that if anyone thinks differently from them or believes something different, that other person is mistaken.

Indeed, humility is a great virtue. I also take your point that a degree of arrogance on all sides can exist in any debate.

However, in response to other contributors, one hardly needs to prove to most observant people that the two instances of behaviour highlighted are not the norm anymore than one needs to demonstrate that one is much more likely to encounter a day of constant rain rather than a month-long heatwave on the Isle of Skye. We already have the incontrovertible evidence of centuries-old human experience?

The OP was clearly startled by his unusual encounter in NSW, simply because it IS unusual. I think that very rarity would have provoked much the same reaction in most of us, and I'm not all surprised he started a thread over it.

One cannot be neutral between simple fact and fiction. The great majority of people do not indulge in tiny minority behaviour. It would be completely illogical and make a complete nonsense of language if they did so!

[greenilex]

Behavioural norms are surprisingly variable across small cultural variations and equally small distances. What is weird is really the extent of our differences, surely, and the normality of human multifariousness? It's all speeded up by web use.

[Flosshilde]

Start The Week on R4 at 09.00 this morning is about to discuss, among other very weird associated things, 'a man who dresses like a little girl'.

There are weird things and people throughout society not least within the Houses of Commons & Lords and the BBC.

It surely has to be the weirdest period in human history so far?

Saint's mummified bodies dresed up & displayed in glass-fronted altars? Jeremy Bentham? It all depends on what you define as weird or normal. I don't find Grayson Perry at all weird.

[jean]

The OP was clearly startled by his unusual encounter in NSW, simply because it IS unusual. I think that very rarity would have provoked much the same reaction in most of us, and I'm not all surprised he started a thread over it.

True. But your own seizing upon the 'unusual encounter' as an excuse to add an example of your own, of something of a quite different sort, seems like nothing so much as an airing of obsessions.

However, I must congratulate you on passing over the OP's marital arrangements without comment:

The OP was clearly startled by his unusual encounter...

when the OP has made it clear that

Yesterday my husband and I...

[Flosshilde]

We already have the incontrovertible evidence of centuries-old human experience?

Do we? Where & what is this 'evidence'? Before the late eighteenth century most evidence of 'ordinary' people's behaviour, and reactions to it, is found in court records etc, which only show the attitudes of the authorities - religious and secular. There is very little evidence of what ordinary people might have thought about these weird or abberrant behaviours. I suspect that there was a good deal more tolerance, and also more possibility for people to live out their 'abberrant' lives (cross-dressing, for example) isolated from others.

[Flosshilde]

However, I must congratulate you on passing over the OP's marital arrangements without comment:

when the OP has made it clear that