[locked to Iris Fortner]

[lefthertainted]

Following up on the conversation we were having before in Phoebe's journal:

I actually have reason to believe there is a force or forces at work to keep most of the non-supernatural population from noticing the supernatural. There have been a number of large-scale disasters in the past that were clearly of supernatural origin--the destruction of the Conrad Hotel, for one, and the Ten Plagues that occurred in the fall of 2009, for another--but most of the residents of the city just can't seem to even consider the possibility of a supernatural origin for these events. Occurrences such as rivers of blood and frogs falling from the sky violate a number of laws of nature as we know them, but while non-supernaturals will notice and react to the events as they are happening, only few days later they seem to have almost forgotten.

Unfortunately, when the other residents of the city do notice what's going on, there is often a violent backlash, leading to the rise of terrorist groups such as the CLF. It's all to easy for people try to blame supernatural occurrences on the supernatural community. The fact that many people don't recognize us for what we are actually gives us a degree of safety, odd as it may sound.

Comments

[lefthertainted]

Building relations within the supernatural community can only be a good thing. And I think support groups would also be a good idea, if we can train people to run them. I try to keep an eye out for people who are having problems, but I'm busy enough with Torchwood work and I can't be everywhere.

I think part of the problem of distrusting those with "monstrous" appearances is a problem of proportions. Murderers make up an extremely small part of the total population of the city, but with "monsters" (not counting Behemoths), the ratio is nearly the opposite. Reported monster attacks vastly outweigh the number of peaceful, sentient non-humanoids that come through the Rift, so people start to generalize. Fear of monsters is actually a very rational fear, especially for those among us who are not well-versed in protecting themselves; however, people need to remember that there are always exceptions to the the rule. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, most of the non-humanoids prefer to live elsewhere, so there aren't often visible reminders of these exceptions. I myself have never met any of them, only heard of mentions of them in the archives.

I think we are ready to start working on outreach to non-supernaturals, if people wanted, but as I said, we need to do it carefully. We need to build friendships slowly with them first, before telling them about the supernatural world. And the thing is, once we get a few 'normal' people on our side, it becomes easier, because they can also convince other people they know that supernaturals are not a threat. Even if they only tell one or two people, thats one or two people that we might not have been able to reach on our own. It's an exponential effect. But as I said, the key words here are slowly and carefully.

[sophicsulphur.livejournal.com]

[...Mio knows Iris too well. Slow and careful are not really words in her vocabulary. But for others' sakes, she'll try.]

Okay, that all makes sense. I've been thinking of holding some kind of meeting soon, I'm not sure whether in person or over the journals, to discuss these things. Like where we're going to get the money for any of this. I would very much appreciate it if you'd share your thoughts at that meeting too, though I understand you're very busy. It just seems like you know a lot.

But yeah, it seems like we have two ways to look at things so far, right? We can help people within the supernatural community and we can also try very carefully talking to people we know who are "normal" humans. Sort of a two-pronged attack. I imagine if we make people in the supernatural community more confident about themselves, they'll also be more likely to want to explain things to a friend, right?

So yeah, I'll definitely bring all of this up when we have the meeting. You've been really helpful; thanks so much!

[lefthertainted]

I wouldn't say I know all that much; most of what I have is secondhand accounts and reports. Martha Jones knows a lot more history than I do, because she's been here the longest of all of the Wanderers. The angels and demons raised here probably know things as well, but a lot of them are young and may not have been involved in any but the more recent events. Nevertheless, I'll still try to be at the meeting you set up to try to answer questions anyone might have.

'Attack' probably isn't the terminology we want to be using here. We really don't want to encourage that kind of mindset.

We should also try to come up with a different word for "normal" humans. "Non-supernaturals" is a bit of a mouthful, but calling some people "normal" humans and other people something else only serves to reinforce people's perceptions of the supernatural community as "other" and somehow bad.

[sophicsulphur.livejournal.com]

Hmm, you're right. I didn't think about that, sorry.

A word for them.... Yeah, we should come up with something like that. It's kind of hard, though, isn't it? If you think about it, the difference between the supernatural population and everyone else is that they have something... well, supernatural about them. Because we came through the Rift, or have some magical power, or such. So the word to describe everyone else seems like it should be "natural" or "normal", but that doesn't work.

Maybe we need to make up a completely new word, like "straight"... well, I guess when you think about it, "straight" also implies ordinary, doesn't it? Like, staying on a straight path? Are there any other word pairs out there that we can look at the patterns of to see how they work and get some ideas, maybe? Ones that have been used for different groups like this, that don't sound bad?

[lefthertainted]

It is difficult. There are terms like "population at large," which is at least somewhat more neutral, but that only works to refer to the group as a whole. There are also terms like "common people" (or "common person") but that actually has somewhat of a negative connotation, as if people who aren't supernatural are boring and unexceptional and that's not the case. Same thing with "ordinary."

It seems like repurposing some other word will have to be the way to go. That can be one of the discussions we have at the meeting.

[sophicsulphur.livejournal.com]

I'll add it to my list of things to bring up. We should certainly raise it to everyone to see who has ideas. I'm glad you thought of it.