Blind To The Skies, The “Normalcy Bias” Dilemma

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We are all living our lives under toxic skies that all too often look like something from another planet, yet, how many even notice? Earth is dying by the day and so few seem to care. How can this be? In the last 40 years global wildlife populations have declined over 50%, shouldn't this be cause for alarm? In fact, 200 or more species of plants, animals and insects are going extinct EVERY SINGLE DAY on our planet, where are the headlines on this? Though there are countless sources of human inflicted damage to our planet, the greatest (and most visible) assault of all is global climate engineering. Our skies are blatantly sprayed day in and day out, the sun is being blocked (the primary goal of solar radiation management) and weather patterns totally disrupted. Still the denial of these realities continues. The toxic particulate fallout from the spraying is mathematically the largest contributing factor to the asthma epidemic. All plant life is absorbing the nanoparticles from the spraying, which puts these toxins into the food chain as well. Is it any surprise that allergies are also now at epidemic levels? All a person has to do is look up and use the slightest bit of deductive reasoning to comprehend that we are all being subjected to a grand and lethal experiment. The walls are closing in on us all from countless directions and the majority of the population as of yet has no clue. Why? The "normalcy bias" is a primary factor. The article below is an excellent exposé of this psychological condition that can and does completely blind people to very real and immediate threats.
Dane Wigington
geoengineeringwatch.org

 

Normalcy Bias: It's All In Your Head

Source: The Survival Mom

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Human bodies don’t normally fly through the air, and I didn’t expect a real life lesson in normalcy bias, but last year that’s exactly what I witnessed while waiting for a red light to turn green.

I was sitting in my Tahoe at an intersection not far from home when I heard the loud rumble of a truck engine. I couldn’t quite believe my eyes when a green pick-up veered around me, raced into the intersection and plowed into a white sedan. While my mind was registering this violent accident, I saw a scarecrow fly through the air. I took a few deep breaths, tried to remember the details of how the accident happened and waited to give my eyewitness account to the police who appeared on the scene within minutes.

My mind re-played the scene, always with that scarecrow flying out of the truck and into the adjacent field. It wasn’t until a half hour later, when I saw EMTs trying to revive a young man did I realize that what I had actually seen was his body at the moment it was ejected from the front seat. Even now, when I remember the accident, I don’t see a human. Instead, the image of a scarecrow is imprinted in my brain because humans don’t fly through the air!

Normalcy Bias defined

This is an example of Normalcy Bias, a survival mechanism our brains are equipped with that can place us in grave danger when we’re faced with something traumatic. Simply put, it causes our brains to insist that all is okay. Everything will return to normal. For most of us who have never faced true peril, Normalcy Bias tells us that nothing bad will ever happen. “This is America!,” some people insist when I tell them about the possibility of a deeper Depression or hyperinflation. Incredibly, the most obvious warning signs are ignored.

This explains why so many Jews continued living in Germany, even after they were forced to wear identifying yellow stars and discriminatory laws were passed against Jewish people. Life had been so good for so long that, surely, things would get better. Jews who could have easily afforded to move out of the country stayed, and perished.

Oncoming hurricanes and similar disasters elicit similar reactions. We simply expect life to go on as it always has, and our brains are wired to accept that and nothing else. A driver attempts to cross a flooded river. Thousands of New Orleans residents faced with Hurricane Katrina refuse to leave the city, and city officials don’t even make an attempt to evacuate them. One survivor from 9/11 tells of going blind as she saw dozens of human bodies hitting the ground outside the Twin Towers. Our brains can accommodate billions of bits of information each day, but apparently, there are some things too terrible to comprehend.

Those of us who believe in preparedness, whether beginners or veterans, know the frustration of trying to convince loved ones that the future is not at all secure, but the Normalcy Bias isn’t something we can debate. It’s not based on logic or rational thought. It’s the brain, doing its best to help its human owner deal with terrifying events and possibilities, as well as with escalating situations whose logical, final outcomes can’t be accepted.

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Here’s another example from the TSA

If you had told me that American citizens would meekly line up to walk through powerful x-ray machines that would strip them bare before low-level TSA employees, I would have said, “Never!” If you had told me that, as an option, they would stand with arms raised while their crotches were groped and would allow their pre-schoolers to be similarly molested, I would have laughed. Yet, that is exactly what happened, and not only do Americans meekly put up with this but they defend it.

The water is heating up and most of the frogs are oblivious.

“Life will get back to normal.”

“There’s nothing wrong with this!”

Each week brings another repressive ruling, and still, most American citizens insist there is no reason for concern.  New legislators will make everything right again. This is just temporary.

Whatever comes next will, again, be excused and accepted. Darn that Normalcy Bias!

Eleven Tips for Banishing Normalcy Bias

Here’s the bottom line. As Survival Moms, we don’t have the luxury of looking at a catastrophe before us and saying over and over again, “I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe this.” If our kids can’t rely on us when all hell is breaking loose, then who can they depend on? Law enforcement and first responders are quickly overwhelmed, and your family is hardly at the top of their list. Normalcy Bias can place those we love most in grave danger.

I think a conversation about overcoming Normalcy Bias will be important and valuable in the Comment section following this article, but here are eleven ways we can begin to condition our minds to accept the unacceptable.

  1. Be willing to go through the painful process of acknowledging the uncertainty of our future. I compare it with the Kubler-Ross grief process:

    • Denial (Normalcy Bias rearing its ugly head!)
    • Anger — at politicians, circumstances, family members)
    • Bargaining (“If I can just buy enough precious metals, we’ll be okay")
    • Depression (Our children aren’t facing the same, sunny future that we did, America is changing before our eyes)
    • Acceptance (I can’t do everything, but I can be proactive and do what I can)
  2. Face facts, don’t hide from them. Confront financial difficulties, acknowledge your limits. Only when you face reality can you prepare for it.
  3. Trust your instincts. Headlines change on a dime. Take in a much bigger picture than a single, optimistic headline or the words of a politician seeking re-election. Trust your own five senses and what your gut is telling you.
  4. Start where you are with what you have.
  5. Fight feeling overwhelmed with lists and organization. Focus on what  you will do today, this week, this month. Little by little it will all come together.
  6. Reach out to others. Start your own Survival Mom meet-up group. Spend time on preparedness and survival forums, as long as they don’t feed your fears. If there was ever a time for people to come together, this is it.
  7. It’s better to over-prepare than to be under-prepared. Normalcy Bias assures us that everything will be okay. A few extra bottles of water is all you really need. Those ten cans of tuna will be plenty! Go ahead and stock up more than you think you’ll need to. Make plans for scenarios that may be a bit far out but still within the realm of possibility.
  8. Make plans. Have an evacuation plan, and prepare for it. Have a hunker-downplan, and prepare for it. Decide ahead of time how you will face the most likely crises and communicate those plans with those who need-to-know. Write down your plans! Panic and stress have a way of erasing the logical parts of our brains!
  9. Be ready to act quickly and decisively. It’s better to take action too soon than too late.
  10. Take time off.  Forget you ever  heard of the word, ‘preparedness’. Go shopping and blow a few bucks on something completely unnecessary. Go out to lunch. Play with the kids. Spend an hour on the phone gossiping with your best friend. Give yourself a mental break! Your family needs you to be strong.  You need to take care of yourself, body, soul, and spirit.
  11. Get physically fit. There is a huge connection between physical and mental fitness. Start with some sort of exercise and start today.

Normalcy Bias, although deeply ingrained in the human brain, doesn’t have to control our futures or place us in harm’s way. The first step in being prepared is becoming educated. Knowing about this bias, what it can do, and how it can be controlled will help you become a Survival Mom in every sense of the word!

Source: The Survival Mom

10 Responses to Blind To The Skies, The “Normalcy Bias” Dilemma

  1. Jane says:

    It seems to be a waste of time to try to wake up the Herd. Most are brain dead from the Fallout.

  2. Sean says:

    Hey Dane, thanks again for all you do.

    I have a few questions that I can't really figure out the answer to and wouldn't know what to say if pressed on the issue. Maybe you can help. I understand we  need to avoid thinking in black and white so I'll try to avoid that.

    – I've noticed tree saplings still seem to be germinating well and for the most part growing without the same obvious damage that a lot of the older trees have here in Vancouver. Is it just a matter of less cumulative exposure? Is the geoengineering fallout expected to cause problems with germination?

    – With the expected mental declines from breathing all this material, should we not be seeing society completely break down simple based on the fact alone that people shouldn't have the mental capacity to perform tasks at work that require high cognitive functioning?

    – With the expected respiratory declines shouldn't we be seeing a lack of new records being set for strength and speed in sporting events?

    – Shouldn't oxygen levels be falling off a cliff? 50% plankton decline is huge, and couple that with the vegetation dieback. I know levels are falling but shouldn't the be falling much faster?

    Those are just a few questions I'm not quite sure how to answer at this point. I noticed the tree dieback here starting in 2009. Since then it seems like it has probably gotten quite a bit worse. Generally it starts looking pretty rough around July and looks terrible by september, but no one seems to care and just considers all the necrotic brown foilage "fall colors" despite the fact this never used to happen and fall shouldn't come that early anyways.

    Every year I think that this will be the year people finally notice that we're in big big trouble, but every year I'm disappointed. I'm not sure anything short of a blue water event in the arctic will get people's attention. It is certainly tracking at record lows right now but June/July are really the key months in determining whether a new record low minimum will be set or not.

    Well Thanks again and if you can provide any insight/information on these issues I'd very thankful.

     

  3. Lakotah says:

    With all due respect, I think normalcy bias and stupidity go hand and hand with the majority of people today. People are programmed to not think for themselves. Most of what you call normalcy bias has been passed down through generations and diluted just as a story that's told over and over again the facts are changed, so goes family values and awareness that continue to be swayed and corrupted by society and the stupidity of what's the latest thing to do with your time, oblivious of the consequences. It's impossible to educate these people. They will continue to believe lies, take things out of context, do no research and go on with their lives. Of course I have to agree that minds will shut out what's just too awful to perceive at any moment. There is a small percentage of people today that can rely on their gut feelings and have enough sense and awareness to see what's really going on around them. Take this geoengineering thing for example. It's so blatantly in everyone's face, to not notice has nothing to do with normalcy bias. These people are just too stupid for their own good. 

  4. nikki says:

    I speak with several people about this every day….  What kills me the most are women/families who are pregnant or have young children.  Having children today is an extraordinarily selfish act.

    It is irrefutable that we are experiencing mass extinction, environmental degradation. political conflict, and more.  

    I have a background in the environment, and lived in the Denver area for nearly a year now.  In this single year, I have seen a huge decline in the health of regional trees/shrubs and even our own garden…. from fungus, to partial/full deaths of trees/plants, to odd temperatures of freeze/thaw… rain at 29 degrees… snow at 39+   

    In addition to the lines constantly smearing the skies, the break ups of massive storm clouds – falling apart like water over cotton candy – the facts of geoengineering are glaringly obvious.

    I have spoken to "educated people" who don't believe it, I ask them to just research it… just google a video – or look up …. most people refuse to do even that.

    I don't know if it's all normalcy-biased related, sometimes it's straight ignorance.

  5. Jacqueline says:

    Thanks Dane, you said some of these steps on the radio show the other day but I didn't listen cause I was really stressed and depressed that day so I really needed to hear #10 and 11 again! 

  6. Ralph Ely says:

    Why is there Normalcy Bias when it comes to GeoEngineering?
    All propaganda- no news – no science – no analysis – no narrative
    The Survival Mom is right about all the points made.  But the Propaganda Machine is the spring board.
    From Wikipedia:
    In a book called “The Propaganda Model”- Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky proposed a concrete model for the filtering processes (biases) of mainstream media, especially in the United States, called the propaganda model. They tested this empirically and presented extensive quantified evidence supporting the model.
    Through an extensive analysis of the financial roots that drive American news media as well as an in-depth look at coverage of specific news events, Herman and Chomsky demonstrate that mainstream news content represents the political and economic interests of the state and other varied powerful corporate entities. Any content that runs contrary to this status quo faces challenges in establishing mainstream credibility, and is consequently prohibited from being able to contribute to the democratic public sphere.
    The model is based upon four "filters" that impact news content. These filters are the consolidation of media ownership to a scant few all-powerful corporations, the influence and integration of advertising in mass media, the dubious reliability of experts and sources utilized by the news, and the concept of “flak,” which involves controlled negative responses to media content."
    They also note… how the mass media is prioritized to deliver a very specific narrative in the news."

    In the Anti-GeoEngineering movement this Propaganda Model is common knowledge, as it not only works in media control (Meteorologist), it works well in controlling Government Employees, Government Contractors, University Scientists and Academics that might dare speak the truth.
    The aforementioned agencies and individuals who are speaking out, are for the most part, presenting a narrative of  Disinformation and (in my opinion) are no more that street corner prostitutes – they just get paid a little better – sometimes.

    • Milla says:

      Unfortunately, and interestingly, Chomsky doesn't talk about this issue. Maybe we should reach out to him and the other political "geostrategists."

    • Louis Lenius says:

      There is no call to insult street corner prostitutes. They are earning an honest living, unlike the pilots who spray toxic materials into the atmosphere.

  7. Rachael Webb says:

    Excellent article Dane, thanks so much for posting this. I actually remember learning about this phenomenon while in college in a few philosophy and psychology classless, I don't remember if it was called normalcy bias, but I remember the explanation quite well. I face this same condition every singe day with family and friends, and as I sit here in flooded and rainy North Texas, it becomes even more important. Everyday I watch the sky get uglier and stranger, its really hard to stay positive. And now we have the looming events of Jade Helm, which has me really nervous. I truly fear we are on the verge of something really really bad.

  8. Cori Gunnells says:

    Remind yourself everyday, why you do what you do… and keep doing it. Your actions and your voice do matter. I think more people 'listen' and retain what you say than shows at face value. 

    This is a rough time, but we are here for it. That I'm sure of. 

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