Normative Remirroring — a changed image of the self as reflected in an evolving and pervasive social surround.

Starting with “social grammar”, the development of characteristic verbal and other expressive behavior in a person along with self-concept may derive from myriad sources, including the experiences of chastisement and reinforcement.  We humans are, after all, sensitive to the slightest nods, whether “yes” or “no” and “maybe”, “not really”, “okay, but I don’t like it”, etc..

“Normative Remirroring” has to do with the modification of an established and stable architecture and message about one’s self in character concept and identity.

No “social surround” has been more changed than that which has broken across boundaries by way of great wealth and fast global transportation or, if cutting it close to poverty as I do, extraordinary access and reach around the world via the World Wide Web.

Not only may we see others and let them know what we think of them (as if some of that wasn’t already “in the air”) but we may hear from them too and argue many things.  With a miscarriage of justice from one perspective or another, the unjust and venal may now hear of their own perfidy in unflattering ways, or, if involved in a bloody conflict on the uglier side in changed or changing ethical and moral terms, see themselves in a new and most unbecoming light.

For the barbaric and outlawed, the sociopaths with guns, becoming and being disliked may not be big deals, but for others who would otherwise enjoy their privileges and travels, their pride in the perception of their own fairness and nobility, what of their misdoings return to the breakfast table by way of the world’s news may hurt or threaten them enough to induce change within themselves.

There is in the term “normative remirroring” the essence of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a tale that dealt with the conscience of a miser and its reformation.  In international politics, it is bound to play a role in the lives of those whose narcissism has been to this point unchecked and not significantly remarked, much less remarked in public, and even less than that, posted for public perception worldwide in near real time.

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