We Become What We Normalize

We Become What We Normalizeicon

by David Dark

Publisher
Broadleaf Books
Publication
Nov 14, 2023
Format
Hardback
Illustrated
No
Price
26.99
Dimensions
5.25 x 8.25 in
ISBN
9781506481685
Pages
210
Age
Adult 18+
Category
Christian LivingGeneral Nonfiction

Rights Sold

LanguageEnglish AudioCountryWorldwideAgent-BuyerBlack Rose Writing

Description

How do we resist the false idols of power and influence to seek true connection and community?

From one of the most respected thinkers and public intellectuals of our day comes a book that is both a cultural critique of the state of our country and a robust summons to resist complicity. As we move through the world, we constantly weigh our conscience against what David Dark calls "deferential fear"--going along just to get along, especially in relation to our cultural, political, and religious conversations. Dark reveals our compromised reality: the host of hidden structures and tacit social arrangements that draw us away from ourselves and threaten to turn us slowly into what we decry in others.

We Become What We Normalize counsels a creative, slow, and artful response to the economy of reaction, hurry, shaming, and fearmongering. Dark offers a deep analysis of the ways our conceptions of ourselves and our use of technology often lead us away from what we believe, reinforcing the false narrative that we must humiliate others in order to survive. "I suspect we become what we sit still for, what we play along with, and what we abide in our attempts to access more perceived power and more alleged influence," Dark writes. We Become What We Normalize calls for a new kind of struggle, ethic, witness, and spirit that helps us step away from the infinite loop of normalizing harm into effecting true change for ourselves and the worlds we inhabit.

Awards & Endorsements

Hanif Abdurraqib, author of A Little Devil in America and They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
"A carefully considered and curated collection of ideas that push back against the waves of despair that might otherwise overwhelm anyone who is in any way immersed and sinking into a world that increasingly feels overwhelmingly treacherous. This collection of writing is a real generosity, a light flickering in the midst of darkness."

Author(s)

David Dark

David Dark

David Dark is the critically acclaimed author of The Sacredness of Questioning Everything, Everyday Apocalypse, and The Gospel According to America. He teaches at the Tennessee Prison for Women and Belmont University. He has had articles published in Pitchfork, Killing the Buddha, Books and Culture, and Christian Century, among others. A frequent speaker, Dark has also appeared on C-SPAN's Book-TV and in the award-winning documentaries, Marketing the Message and American Jesus. He lives with his singer-songwriter wife, Sarah Masen, and their three children in Nashville.

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