I was thinking about it. I don't really know what Aspergers is exactly. It's kind of one of those "you know it when you see/hear it" things, you know, like pornography, or New Wave music. Kind of more defined by an undefinable essence only detected by experience; difficult to know academically. Even most psychologists probably aren't really totally sure what autism/asperger's is.
But tonight it dawned on me. I think people with Aspergers are wired to be creative rather than be social. Society and culture are held together by two things really - the social bonds people form, all the way from the family to the state, and by the art that also serves to bond those people together and entertain them as well. Look at any country, and they will cite their blood and their language/culture as being what unites them as a people.
Aspies might be that few percent (I think they say about 1 in 150 or 200 people are Aspie, personally I think it's much higher, probably about 5%) that create much of the art and culture while the other 95% who are so-called "NTs" form the social network of the community.
That's not to say Aspergers don't value relationships, I certainly do, deep down, I love my friends and family and the human species, as well as other life forms, even more than I love my music, but I still feel like my mission in life is to change the world via my art, and not just to be part of a social web of human relationships.
Nor do NTs never dabble in art and social justice, indeed most artists and activists are probably not Aspies, though I would say a huge percentage of Aspies are artists or social activists.
This theory imo explains many things about aspies - why were tend to like alone time, why we're generally heavily interested in science, music, language, etc, why we are socially awkward (we're not wired as primarily social beings so we tend to have less skills than the average person in that field), why we can be "obsessed" (i prefer passionate) and totally consumed with rather narrow matters (to change the world or create something, you HAVE to be focused, to be social, you have to be more generalized).
Controversially, I think this is where we are in a way kind of akin to the LGBT community (aside from our shared experience of being outcasted). Aspies, being not primarily social, do not primarily exist to have children. Of course many aspies, including myself, would love children, but I don't consider the meaning of my life to be to reproduce, but rather to create new things and make the world more beautiful.
Gay people of course, being biologically wired to like the same sex, are also less, on a biological level at least, "designed" to be parents (though im totally for gay adoption), though they do seem as a whole more social than aspies, but I think this might also explain on a biological level why gay and lesbian people seem to gravitate to the arts, politics, etc, on largest percentage bases than straight people.
I could be totally wrong but I think basically what Asperger's is at its core is a wiring in the creative rather than social direction, which could explain on a biological basis almost ALL of the so called 'aspie traits'. Such as the depression aspies face, perhaps not being a physical brain thing, but rather the sadness that comes with realizing most people don't think the same way you do, being rejected and bullied, also aspies are often seen as 'weird' but I really think this has more to do with the fact we don't feel as much need to conform, so we probably simply appear more weird than most people.
Same goes with like sometimes Aspies say things that make them sound insensitive - ie they might make light of something like 9/11 or Haiti, it doesn't really mean they're mean or cold hearted, most people probably have dark thoughts now and then, many people probably don't care personally about faraway tragedies though out of the need to be socially liked and out of respect will give lip service to tragedies. Remember it was only very recently in history that the idea of feeling compassion for people outside your family became commonplace because until the later centuries of the Middle Ages there wasn't even a concept of self! So yeah Aspies might show less false kindness to others but imo Aspies are often more truly compassionate than NTs though it varies of course.
Also the sloppy hygiene many Aspies has is probably again because we as a 'people' tend to be interested more in our internal world and not quite so concerned with impressing other people - though of course we have the capability to at least pretend to care about looking good; I definitely care more about my appearance than I used to, now that I've got to the age of liking women and stuff.
23 Jul 2011, 6:18 am
