A New Normal : This phrase crept into our language as far back as the beginning of 2020:

This is our new normal. That’s the message from nanotechnologist Dr Michelle Dickinson after New Zealand increased its alert level in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak.

“nanotechnologist” I don’t recall that at the time but I did notice the phrase in Ardern’s language shortly after and it continued through the pandemic period until one day I noticed with some deliberate emphasis, Ardern added, welcome.

“Welcome to your new normal.”

At that point and I suspect many people, like me, said, “Hey, what.”

There was a sound of permanence about something we weren’t even sure of, along with confusion about who said what, even from the ‘Podium of Truth’.

Claim: New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her country doesn’t have an issue with the “rage of older white men” because “we’ve never allowed Rupert Murdoch to set up a media outlet here.”
Rated by AP News: False.
The quote is fabricated. There is no record of Ardern making such comments, and a spokesperson for her office confirmed she did not.

We are now realising that “A New Normal” was never explicitly defined, more that it became a subjective guess as to what it meant at any given time.

It became at times a battleground about what will be dictated as normal – I don’t think that’s over yet – but for New Zealand, there was a substantial, “Oh no you won’t!” that sent a prime minister packing.
Then there have been major changes, such as a country now without an oil refinery – a change of circumstances, that hasn’t visibly created a new normal in, or, impacted the daily lives of so many people whose lives have been dramatically affected in other ways, mandates in particular.

Where is this evolution of a new normal up to?

A media perspective. It’s a daily struggle to keep up with the pace of change and the actual change in technology, structure and the development of media let alone the news itself, if you are still interested, that is, many aren’t, they have shut the world out for their own peace of mind.

More recently major global disruption has done two things. First, this has significantly increased the amount of information available and secondly, this has allowed us to join a lot of dots and have a few ‘UhHa Moments’ … is that what is or has been going on.

Our mainstream media couldn’t publish enough in a day to keep up with the international news. It occurs to me we are in a similar situation to the US at the start of WW1. America saw a sanitised version of the news and later with George Creal a, this is what you need to know, selective version of world events as the war tumbled out of control into, The Great War.

The country has enough on its domestic plate to occupy us but that’s also directly linked to what’s rapidly changing overseas but which we are not seeing in our delivered news. If you look elsewhere, it is there to be found, in the internet age as long as we have the internet, that is.

“We are in the midst of a strategic competition to shape the future of the international order.” U.S. Admiral Paparo.”

This new normal is expanding itself to not only what is our new normal but what could our new normal be.

It is becoming apparent that in many parts of the world decisions are being made without any discernable outcome from their collective effect.

If we step away from trying to define “A New Normal” we have a new reality. The greater majority of our population was born after 1939, the year WW2 started and anyone born that year would be turning 85 this year.

Throughout our lifetime we have seen the portrayal of WW3 as a dramatic nuclear apocalypse, rather than one of conventional military warfare which is expanding into the drone wars: no where to run, no where to hide while there’s a drone in the sky.

In that respect that age of men is over. We’ve been superceded by the age of technology unless you’re playing the computer game driving the real life weapon.

This last week has reached epic proportions of declarations of WW3. Britain officially announced it earlier this year which might seem a little surreal if you aren’t seeing the collective statements from the world’s various leaders, military, civilian, or otherwise.

The global news that you may not see has implications. Take France for example, where Macron has just announced social welfare cuts to fund the war in Ukraine.

Then this is announced from his new prime minister Gabrielle Attal. (Their republic has a different process of appointment for a prime minister, it is effectively Deputy President)

What exactly this means is anyone’s guess as to France’s relationship with the EU, for the EU itself, for other countries in the EU and how France does business with other countries outside the EU and existing trade agreements – sovereignty really is the big if.

That’s one example of the extent of the global uncertainty. It exists in real time, and is a much bigger debate than anyone’s opinion on Ukraine, or Julian Assange’s extradition proceedings which are underway in the High Court of London.

Some of us have a sense of the uncertainty while others are still talking about how the last covid booster they got didn’t hurt their arm; that is the reality of how far apart our common sense is, how disproportionate our narrative is to what is or might be happening.

There is a simmering response to the uncertainty in discussions around NZ Health and NZ Transport for example where past and future directions may be in limbo based on international rules rather than sovereign rules.

What is also now an uncertainty is the new age of men in this country. It won’t be a younger audience reading this – they are too busy making sense of the mess.

For older men we have our memories and contributions to the country to look back on.

For younger men, this must be a time of real confusion and uncertainty about what their future holds, what their role might be, and how they should respond now.

I have noticed a bit of that rage of older white men recently, and fair enough, it’s not uncalled for but alongside that I think we need to see a narrative now that is more focused on young men than feminist ideals.