I’m Mundane, You’re Insane. Or Are You?

Inspired by the radical notion that most of us don’t live Jerry Springer lives, two Cal State Fullerton sociology professors, Myron Orleans and Scott Schaffer, have unleashed a new Web publication called the Journal of Mundane Behavior (https://www.mundanebehavior.org). Taking a fine-toothed comb to the quotidian, Mundane boldly takes on elevator talk, how we behave in libraries and what really happens during a morning shave. Its second issue appears next week. We asked Schaffer to join Stuart Swezey, founder of Amok Books and editor of the envelope-pushing “Amok Fifth Dispatch: Sourcebook of the Extremes of Information” (https://www.amokbooks.com), to discuss normal versus weird in Los Angeles.

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Popular culture places Los Angeles at the very edge of weird. Is this city really that strange?

Swezey: L.A. definitely has a history of strange religious outcroppings, from Aimee Semple McPherson to L. Ron Hubbard, not to mention its share of true eccentrics, such as Eden Ahbez, a vegetarian songwriter who lived under one letter--can’t remember which--of the Hollywood sign and was responsible for Nat King Cole’s hit “Nature Boy.” Our alienated, sprawling, car-based existence, in which the primary industry is the creation of spectacular illusion, is just the template for the rest of the world--which is, sadly, in the process of catching up.

Schaffer: Stuart’s right--there are a lot of weird things that go on in this city; and the idea of a city whose primary industry is the construction of illusion is a strange thing in itself. But the same things that happen in any other city happen here--we drive through nasty rush-hour traffic to get to work; we put in 8 to 10 hours; we come home; we fight with our kids about homework, curfews, dating; we pay bills and taxes; we search for meaning in all of this. A lot of the reason why L.A. seems to be a weird city is that we have the means--the industry--to put out whatever view of ourselves we want.

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So if we were able to lift the entertainment industry from L.A. and transport it to Omaha, Neb., would Omaha become the new LaLa Land?

Swezey: Part of the LaLa Land concept is still related to climate. We have a very mild and somewhat consistent pattern of “hazy sunshine in the Southland,” which supposedly makes the people that move here lose their minds and get soft and/or decadent. The global patterns of entertainment consumption probably have more to do with what gets churned out at this point in our history than such whimsical factors as local geography. As to whether Omaha might become a little more fun, that’s a safe bet.

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What are the ground rules for “normal” or “extreme” behavior?

Swezey: “Normal” is what is condoned by society at a minimum and encouraged at a maximum. That could mean binding the feet of baby girls, as in pre-revolutionary China, or genital piercing, as in ‘90s Western pop culture.

schaffer: But it takes a lot of coordination to get people to agree that certain practices are encouraged or forbidden. For example, pedophilia--I’m thinking of groups like the Man/Boy Love Assn., not stalkers--was seen as an integral part of the socialization process in ancient Greece. The mentoring relationship was seen as crucial to the development of a good Athenian citizen, and the sexual aspects of the relationship were accepted as a part of the social order. Likewise, what we encourage was looked upon as freakish in other social orders--think of our culture’s requirement that sexual relations be between married, consenting adults and occur in the privacy of their home.

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How do you determine when something has become everyday?

Swezey: When it no longer warrants a mention in the press or turns heads when someone is walking down the street. Which doesn’t mean it isn’t grist for yet another Jerry Springer episode.

schaffer: But there are plenty of things that pop up in the news on a daily basis--another shooting in South-Central, another movie star entering rehab, another Storm Watch 2000--that become mundane when they occur regularly and we can anticipate them.

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What is considered “everyday” in L.A.--Dennis Rodman, for example--wouldn’t be regarded as commonplace in, say, Joplin, Mo. When is an activity no longer “deviant”?

Swezey: That assumes that all so-called “deviant” activities will at some point be considered “normal.” Which doesn’t take into account the Dr. Lauras of the world, who continually attempt to roll back the clock on personal freedoms. The whole idea of progress in terms of human enlightenment is subject to question at this point.

schaffer: Even beyond Dr. Laura, though, there’s MTV’s Dr. Drew. I admire his work--don’t get me wrong. The advice that he consistently gives, though, is meant to do one thing: reproduce the kind of relationship and repertoire of sexual practices that are dominant in our society. So my glib response might be that something is no longer deviant when Dr. Drew says it’s something we can do without worrying about guilt, disease or future psychological trauma.

Beyond that, the tendency that Stuart points out--for “deviant” activities to become “normal”--is again associated with the needs of the media. In previous generations, our parents and extended families served as our primary socialization mechanisms, telling us what was right or wrong. Now it’s the media, which has to ensure its continued existence by selling stuff. To do this, it has to push the boundary on what’s considered “deviant.” Even Supercuts has pierced-to-the-hilt twentysomethings selling what all of us 10 years ago considered to be a socially degrading haircut.

And who says Dennis Rodman is “everyday” in L.A.? Celebrity, even in L.A., is still abnormal, if not deviant.

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So are you saying that what’s being marketed as edgy and cool actually celebrates the status quo?

Swezey: Anything that makes money for big corporations reinforces the status quo. But usually anything that is perceived as hip and outre will eventually be used to make money for the big corporations.

schaffer: I don’t think I’d go so far as to say that it celebrates the status quo. Rather, advertising has a strange way of making mundane things, such as dishwashing detergent or shampoo, edgy and cool, while at the same time it works to insinuate the latest, coolest thing into our heads so that it actually does become part of the status quo.

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Speaking of status quo, everyone famous likes to recount how normal--even geekish--they were as kids, wearing their former normalcy like a badge of courage. How do you interpret this phenom?

Swezey: I interpret it as completely factual. The sad truth is, they’re still geeks.

schaffer: It’s interesting that the equation gets made here between “normal” and “geek.” But when it comes down to it, we were all geeks.

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Stuart, is there any kind of mundane--or, as Scott puts it, “unmarked”--behavior that you find fascinating and/or bizarre?

Swezey: People will sit in a parked car longer if someone is waiting for their spot. Instead of moving faster to make the spot available, they will find little tasks to do in the car so they can hold onto that precious spot just a little bit longer. My theory is that this is a thinly veiled form of hostility directed at fellow motorists that allows the person in the parked car to feel an undeserved sense of control over their pathetic lives.

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Now to you, Scott. What extreme behavior strikes you as mundane?

schaffer: Piercing and tattoos used to seem so extreme, but have become rather mundane. Stuart’s response indicates something that is completely correct--we often exaggerate ordinary behaviors in order to make our point. My personal favorite is what I’ve occasionally called “freeway class warfare.” The more expensive a person’s car is, the more likely it is they think they own the road and will do some outrageous thing to gain those extra six seconds in their life, like cut you off in some dangerous lane change. We all do stupid things like this on occasion, but in this case, what we might otherwise apologize for--cutting someone off, tailgating, etc.--is actually an expression of who we think we are in relation to everyone else on the road. Early on in my driving career, when all I had was a beat-up ’68 Camaro, I thought this was completely outlandish and rude; now I almost expect it.