“A self-fulfilling prophecy is a sociological term used to describe a prediction that causes itself to become true. The process by which a person’s expectations about something or someone can lead to that something or someone becoming or behaving in ways which confirm the expectations.”
From all the popular terms coming out of the current epidemic, surely is “new normal” the one that I abhor the most. We are currently bombarded by the constant pushing of the term “new normal” from all corners of society. Politicians, journalists and self-proccalimed “experts” all use it as some kind of brainwashing mantra. Normal is something ordinary, usual. Normal is average, it is typical, it is predictable. What we are going through today is not normal.Read more...
Pianist Esbjörn Svensson died suddenly, at the peak of his career, in a diving accident on June 14, 2008, 44 years of age. Here he makes a striking account of a previous close encounter with death and his personal reflections (audiofile in Swedish, Summer 2003).
“It was as if I could see straight inside her. And she had made up her mind. I knew it. It was an unmistakable feeling. I then understood that I had to speak to her. If she is going to jump, I will have to stop her. And somehow, distract her attention. Slowly, I begin to move towards her. She stays very strategically placed, exactly at the exit of the tunel as the train approaches the platform. And a bit too close to the edge. I come closer to her. Very, very carefully. Slowly. I understand that it is incredibly sensitive. I do not think very much. I feel I would just like to distract her. I come closer, maybe 10 meters away from her. I hear that the train approaches. And I hear that she hears. She makes herself ready. I come even closer. Very slowly… Now I am just 3 meters from her. Then comes the train… and the woman jumps, straight in front of it. The train buzzes. People scream. Everything stops. And I stood 3 meters from her… But I turn around and run away… It’s too much. I don’t see what happens. There, in front of my eyes, a person has taken her life, straight out into something else. Something which we don’t know anything about. And I can’t just look anymore. I run. The police is coming. People all around is in desperation. But I walk away…”Read more...
