“An odd duck, that one.”
“That’s for sure. It’s weird to me that we were once close.”
Many such cases. And sometimes this back and forth is warranted: the old friend does indeed take an odd turn or proves to be a slow revealer of the weirdo he is. But it is also often the case that the two in dialogue might actually be odder than the former friend. In which case, the now “odd duck” has made a change for the better or he’s simply discovered that his two former friends are… well, odd.
One might think that “odd” isn’t the right word, especially in today’s world. “It’s all a matter of perspective,” one might say. “One man’s oddity is another man’s… normalcy,” to parrot a more well-known, probably better-put, cliche regarding trash and treasure.
It’s likely the two conversing above aren’t just speaking from personal perspectives. The safe assumption is that they’re drawing their definition of “odd” from society’s definition. And why wouldn’t they? It’s been baked in. Drilled into their minds, resulting in a seamless procession from their mouths as if it were an implemented “natural instinct.”
But that’s an impossibility, right? Implementation of natural instinct. Sure, but its impossibility will only be respected in a world—society—in which social engineering is seen for the force that it truly is, including its powerful ability to propagate what is “odd” and what is “normal.”
It’s true that as long as society exists so too will social-engineering. And constantly lamenting this fact will lead one to constant paralysis. It is also true that current societal progression, along with its engineers, have escalated a distortion of odd and normal, as well as, more deviously, good and evil.
However, glimmers—or glitches from the engineer’s and their closest adherents’ perspectives—do present themselves. Not always successfully, as you’ll see below. But they do exist, and better yet, their beginning can be as simple as discerning between true vice and virtue.
“Can you remember when he started getting weirder, or did it just come up unexpectedly?”
“Both… maybe? Like, I thought he was getting in a really good space there for a bit, was getting healthier and wasn’t as into the things he used to be. But then it got to be too much.”