Autism is in the headlines again, as it does periodically, and alas always from the negative viewpoint. A viewpoint is the point of view of the opinionator, and the point from which it is viewed is the opinion itself. The opionator directs its opinion at the subject, which in this case is autism – again.
It was President Trump, who so often speaks so much common sense, cuts to the point, sets the ball rolling, puts it up in the air and for so often most people to say, well, there is some truth in that. And as this blog is interested in the measurement of anything and everything to the baseline facts – which are Helios, Earth, gravity, and the tiny life zone around our spinning planet – the matter of societal leadership of life forms within this life zone is of great interest to this writer. However, it was President Trump who last week spoke of the problem of the increasing rate of an autism diagnosis.
Yes, it is a fact that the rate of diagnoses have increased exponentially, in both the USA and the ‘UK’. However, just an elemental kind of analysis of this must ask the basic question of is it that more and more people are ‘catching’ autism, this awful disease as described by those whose viewpoint is that autism is entirely negative? If so, then the cause for this change must be found, as believed by those people, and negated, so as to avoid people getting autism, or coming out of the womb as autistic, when they wouldn’t have been before. It has been a long time that people have been looking for the cure to make sure these odd people don’t hold back society any longer in its rush to the promised nirvana. Autistic people are not much fun to be around, don’t see the point of selfies, and don’t contribute much to the economy in pointless Valentine merchandise and daily takeaway pizzas. So far no cure, only the reverse apparently, more and more people ‘are getting autism’.
Taking a different viewpoint, looking from a different perspective, and putting this question back into the fundamental facts of human society living in the life zone which is the tiny, tiny little space around Earth, which is governed by Helios and gravity, then it is a valid question to ask how do we know there are more people ‘catching autism’, and that it isn’t more a question of societal changes? When a landslide happens, the topography changes and the habitat is not as before, and many many lives are disrupted – from earthworms to birds to snails to mammals to bacteria, to water life, and of course the humans. If a river dries up, on which societies of humans and other life forms depended for centuries, all along a long length from source to estuary, then there is huge disruption of normal societal balances, much crisis and stress, and the disruption is apparent because of the loss of the underpinning of existence.
What if the same principles are put into the last few decades of western civilization which in this case is the Protestant (in the general sense) band of the ‘UK’ and the USA, not the Catholic countries of Iberia, Gaul, underneath the Germanic countries, into Poland and eastern Europe, and back around Italy and the Mediterranean islands? This increased rate of diagnosis in the ‘UK’ and the USA is the subject of this debate, all from the point of view that it shows a problem going on, which must be found, eradicated, and then the autistic people will also disappear. What if the problem turned round and asked the societies and government, why is it taking away the habitat of the autistic folks? This is using autism in the general sense, not the difference between us autistics and the Aspergers, who call themselves Aspies and get on well together, have different motor skills, often say they feel lonely, and gravitate towards social integration. We all have great difficulty with sensory overload, and a few other similarities, so this post doesn’t need to turn into a 5,000 word essay on the difference between Aspies and us autistics.
Even to a few decades ago there was a rich habitat for autistic people, healthy biodiversity in society, civic life, libraries, education, real science with eyes and brain before the data age, small scale railways, government at regional council and national level, even after Tony Blair introduced the not at all thought out devolution of parliaments to various parts of the ‘UK’ there was a healthy habitat for autistic people. Turning that round, it can be said as pretty much a fact, that a healthy society depends on people who care about systems, structure, well regulated organisations, that children have access to informative projects in libraries, that civil servants work without ego but just doing the job of regulating and enabling and checking, and that those who have a particular ability and aptitude in certain areas are pointed in that direction and left to it, without being in a petri dish of researchers and data. It used to be such, and the point is that it really did. The autistic people were seamlessly woven into the fabric of society, and even if people would think they were just a bit odd in the lack of social flair and desire for self publicity, even then it would not be anything like a problem to society itself, because most autistic people were very useful in society.
Now the fabric of society has been collapsed, the autistic children who would once have had shelves of books, musical instruments, steady careers as a clerk or a piano tuner or a librarian or a teacher (of certain subjects) or the reliable council worker or the so many other aspects of a society, now have only a strange world of schools built of modern materials which bang and echo, no windows that open, chaotic lessons where most are on their smartphones, flipping through images which autistic people just don’t get, modern lighting which really, really hurts our eyes, and a relentless focus on the emotional, the wellbeing, the individual experience, which for us autistics is a real nightmare and panic, because we simply do not put ourselves forward like that. So, instead of asking why is autism on the increase, why not ask why is society causing so much stress to autistic people? Maybe it is the stress that is being diagnosed, not a diagnosis ‘finding a new autistic person.’?
So, if President Trump wants to lessen, or eradicate the problem of autism, the simplest way of all would be to put back all the facets of society in which autistic people thrive, and often underpin in their reliability. If real books, real building of stone or wood, real food, real lighting of minimal and old fashioned light bulbs, and windows that open were introduced into all towns and cities, and the strange obsession with individual feelings and expression and being respected was just quietly shelved, then maybe the ‘new’ autistic children would soon be part of the natural habitat, in our often genetic lines of autism and which was able to contribute so very much to society in the past. From the viewpoint of humans functioning in the life zone, on Earth, the function of the autistic is really really necessary, and as the litmus test of a healthy society for all, to mark it on the autistic line of functioning, well, just how much stress would that reduce for the rest of society as well? Probably a lot.
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