A.S.P.E.R.G.E.R.S
This is another of those memes I posted in light of discussions with my doctor over my research findings made it well-nigh certain I was 'on the spectrum.' I was calling it Aspergers back then rather than autism. I wasn't quite sure of the difference between Aspergers and autism and, in truth, didn't know an awful lot about autism. My research had honed in on Aspergers. I identified myself immediately. The only thing I would say is that memes are always so simple and reductive as to be highly questionable. There is also the danger of associating AS with negative stereotypes - rigid in this meme, but monotone and such like in others. Autistic people can damn themselves by the words they use; they may know precisely what these words mean, but the layperson may well be more familiar with negative connotations and associations. The problems come when the autistic person ends up at cross-purposes with others - as they will - with said others more than happy to take autistic people at their word - rigid, obsessive, monotone, endless talking (writing in my case). Guilty as charged then. Actually, no. Autistic people have their routines and preferred way of doing things, but are required to bend every day of their lives, a bending that can cause intense pain and distress. 'Particular topic obsession' is a very poor way of expressing the enthusiasm an autistic person has for a special interest, leading them to commit hours of research and hard work to its pursuit. In other walks of life this would be called 'expertise.'
Socially challenged is an obvious one within the triad of impairments explanation, referring to problems with social interaction, communication, and imagination. I would broaden the focus here to include the challenges autistic people face from the socially remiss behaviour of others. Interaction is a two-way street.
The part that interests me as a writer and a thinker who has been consistently accused and abused on account of using a lot of 'long words' is the combination of advanced vocubularly, particular topic obsession/special(ist) interest, and gifted. I am a historian by inclination and training, but went on to PhD philosophy. I like ideas, I like clarity, I like details - I dislike warm woolly words and fuzzy phrases. I think people with nothing to say hide behind them. They believe in all nice things but don't want to answer the big questions and engage in the hard practical politics that takes us from the less-than-nice here to the much nicer there. They hide their paucity of thought behind a vague and vacuous 'imagine.' And it makes my teeth itch. It's treacherous ground for me. I have to restrain myself from questioning and criticising, for the reason I know that people who engage in this non-thought are not to be shaken out of their non-thinking. They resort to empty slogans because it enables them to avoid thinking. It's hardly surprising that I gravitated towards philosophy. Socrates, however, never made himself popular by asking questions. To get a pertinent answer it is often necessary to ask an impertinent question. People don't like to be discomforted. And, as this meme points out, I am highly sensitive to criticism and easily distressed.
The solution? There isn't one. You have to take your chances. I would say 'know your audience,' only to point out that such knowing can never come wholly before the fact. The proof of the pudding is in the questioning. It is only in social engagement with others that you find out who can take you as you are, full force, without dilution, and those who cannot. It's a terrible bind: the people who are most in need of being subject to impertinent interrogation, the people who live lives of ignorance and illusion, are the ones most likely to be discomforted, reacting violently and abusively to your 'argumentative' nature. In other words, they'll like and love the slogans, because it is the done thing, but they'll never live by them or up to them. In other words, the people who get the message of memes like this already understand it; the ones in need of such education are the ones who are not for educating.
That might sound a pessimistic conclusion, indicating a general hopelessness. The point is that general appeals are idle, inviting a passive assent that entails no change in thought and behaviour. Memes are good to catch the eye, but the problem with catchphrases is that catch people only at the most superficial level of their senses, whereas there is a need to engage them more deeply. A more focus and targetted approach involving reiterated encounters within close relations to identifiable others is much more effective. But there's the rub: autistic people are often isolated or, worse, institutionalized in such a way that they have to accept the terms of their 'carers.'
