The Decline of Deviance

Adam Mastroianni argues that culture, and society in general, has become more normalized and less “deviant”; not a completely bad thing, but it can have negative consequences. (Via Austin Kleon)

Some quick notes:

• Mastroianni argues that the main reason behind this shift is that the value of life has, literally, gone up: economic development and scientific advances have made life a lot less dangerous now, which in turn makes people more cautious and risk-averse
• This is mainly a good thing, but it also means the kind of risk-taking needed to make new discoveries and / or inventions becomes less common, and thus progress might stagnate.
• Therefore, we need new spaces / institutions that can encourage this kind of risk-taking, as a way to “keep the good kinds of weirdness alive”. We must choose to be weird.