> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.opendemocracy.net/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# The struggle over what is normal: May 07 - 13 on openDemocracy
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/struggle-over-what-is-normal-may-07-13-on-opendemocracy/
- Published: 2012-05-24T10:05:19.000Z
- Updated: 2026-04-23T01:02:55.000Z
- Description: What’s normal? For thirty years the politics of ‘globalisation’ has tried to persuade us that regulation is inhuman while avarice and the market are natural. Now, in the wake of the crash, a struggle over what is ‘normal’ has begun. In a brilliantly suggestive reflection on France after the electi
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: The Week in 1 Minute, #Migrated, #en, #Import 2026-04-09 17:19, #appended-excerpt

**Syria is moving towards a sectarian civil war**, [warns](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/1bdcfb7903&ref=opendemocracy.net) Yakin Ertürk. In a critique of [Mariano Aguirre](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/82f3eb219d&ref=opendemocracy.net), Steven Heydemann and Reinoud Leenders [emphasize](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/41bc18b6c4&ref=opendemocracy.net) the need for a credible threat to the regime and Mariano [issues a strong reply](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/a5533a12fc&ref=opendemocracy.net): militarization means costly foreign intervention, destroying many lives without bring down Assad. Perhaps Mali shows the consequences of foreign military solutions [says](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/480c8b63eb&ref=opendemocracy.net) Stephen Zunes.

Can Islamist parties lead **the Arab countries** to swift economic improvement? It is critical that they do [says Fawaz Gerges](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/11dfd49d9c&ref=opendemocracy.net). Genevieve Theodorakis [agrees](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/5313d1fef7&ref=opendemocracy.net) and [NATO also has to learn from the past](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/1e0490a063&ref=opendemocracy.net) in its relations with the Middle East, argues Andrea Teti in his second contribution of the week, as [Rebecca Johnson](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/375c69d5ad&ref=opendemocracy.net) laments the UN’s failure to remove nuclear weapons from the region.

Responding to Anthony Barnett’s indictment of the British prime minister as party to a [criminal understanding](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/8c4c0e2fca&ref=opendemocracy.net) with **Rupert and James Murdoch**, oD’s Chairman David Elstein says [intimacy is not so simple](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/b8fe60a47f&ref=opendemocracy.net) and Anthony replies - as Brian Cathcart points out - that there is [an even greater press scandal](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/97dc439089&ref=opendemocracy.net) which, astonishingly, the press does not cover! The [magic and manipulation of the Olympics](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/9e2843ab65&ref=opendemocracy.net) draws Phil Cohen into its culture as the country’s largest warship is ordered up the Thames as a protective measure and Paul Rogers quietly mocks a Naval obsession with [watery greatness](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/577de70858&ref=opendemocracy.net).

**To Europe’s east,** [Moscow feels occupied](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/e09f3c2b45&ref=opendemocracy.net), Armenia and Azerbaijan [head back to war](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/cbf5ef297b&ref=opendemocracy.net), and something very odd is [going on in Lithuania](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/cddd398f4b&ref=opendemocracy.net) while [Turkey’s political direction](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/5dc8a5372e&ref=opendemocracy.net) is challenged by the Gülen movement.

**We have launched our Spring campaign. If you are a supporter and want to make** [**another donation**](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/99cb3e1db6&ref=opendemocracy.net) **please don’t hesitate. If you know one person who you think would like to get these handy editors’ summaries please forward this email to them now and ask them to** [**join up here**](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/3591d0e7fd&ref=opendemocracy.net)**,** **the amount they wish to give is entirely up to them.**

Don’t miss out on these excellent stories elsewhere on the web:

oD author Todd Gitlin asks: [Is freedom of speech a dead letter?](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/5fd0fa2f29&ref=opendemocracy.net)

[Can geoengineering fix the climate?](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/1232af6a1c&ref=opendemocracy.net)

[The normalization of drones in American life](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/57f744a42a&ref=opendemocracy.net)

****What’s normal?**For thirty years the politics of ‘globalisation’ has tried to persuade us that regulation is inhuman while avarice and the market are natural. Now, in the wake of the crash, a struggle over what is ‘normal’ has begun. In a [brilliantly suggestive reflection](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/d1e587c027&ref=opendemocracy.net) on France after the elections, the leading feminist scholar Nilifur Gole contrasts the conservative ‘normal’ of socialist President-elect Hollande and the anti-immigrant claim on the ‘normal’ by Le Pen. For sure, across Europe, [argues Andrea Teti](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/f84becced2&ref=opendemocracy.net), ruling politicians, their methods and policies are being repudiated, not least the Greek [party dinosaurs](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/2a6dec52a3&ref=opendemocracy.net) of PASOK and New Democracy as [economic pressure](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/998f1aa4d6&ref=opendemocracy.net) and [anti-Roma](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/23d6962a28&ref=opendemocracy.net) nationalist feelings reshape the public sphere, while [50:50’s Lea Sitkin](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/e517e3f3cb&ref=opendemocracy.net) observes that border control now resembles crime control. And a Muslim Norwegian [calmly refuses](http://cts.vresp.com/c/?openDemocracy/0ea8150838/7262321cfa/4edff242da&ref=opendemocracy.net) all such politics.