In Theory...

01 April 2009

There's nothing wrong with people with Asperger's syndrome; they could in fact even be consdiered as superior. Aspies could be said to be the first humans to evolve beyond the pack mentality.

This is the stuff I come up with when I have too much time on my hands. (Why I have too much time on my hands but haven't been posting is something I'll get to this week). Anyway, I've both lived with and dated men with Asperger's syndrome (not at the same time - they weren't the same person). My ex actually suggested at the time we were dating I may have the condition myself, but I strenuously denied this, and didn't know much of the condition until recently when I got to reading about it.

It's fascinating stuff. Myself, I've been wondering if perhaps Aspies have evolved beyond meaningless social interaction in order to persue higher goals.

In the early days of human evolution, humans had to live as part of a pack/tribe/group to survive. A "yay, team!" mentality was required from all, or early people would be cast out on their own, unable to hunt, reproduce, or defend themselves.

But in today's society, this is no longer necessary. Sure, social skills are nice and can make life easier, for example when job hunting. But we can survive on our own. Maybe in Aspies, the part of the brain which gives a shit that your colleague is about to become a grandparent again is shut off, in order to achieve something more long lasting than small talk at a party you were only dragged to by your much more social partner.

4 comments:

  1. you could argue the opposite - that aspies demonstrate an evolutionary dead-end in that their inability to form normal relationships will mean a greater likelihood that they themselves will not pass their genes on to a second generation - or if they do breed, that their children will be less likely to want their own children due to their own antisocial relationship with a socially disfunctional parent.

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  2. You certainly could say that. This is just my theory and I don't fully agree with it.

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  3. Every person in the world is on the autism spectrum somewhere...Some more than others....It is so freely diagnosed these days in children....some of these kids need to experience life. It is their parents that r 2 blame.....the way they r treated and made to think...i have seen it first hand everyday with the children i am in contact with. It is just a label, and i dont paricularly agree with it.

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  4. I say it's a combination... useful traits in say, wartime are different to those in a more comfortable and happy place. Today's sociopaths and ruthless survivors are the heroes and champions of wilder times and places. Sitting in a different place on the spectrums of attention to detail and/or relationships are a hindrance or a help depending on one's environment.

    Yes, I'm stealing my ideas from the narrator of Sin City about Marv and making potentially offensive comparisons between personality disorders and autism spectrum.

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