How would a country run by autistics and aspergians look?

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Lot's of good points.

It is the big sticking point, that we actually need more empathy than a lot of people, but that we aren't always good at showing it ourselves. It has concerned me, that we may actually drive each other nuts, by not seeing how upset the other autistics are in difficult civic dilemmas.

We would therefore need a ritualised method of relaying these things to each other. A sign of "this far, no further" and also a prohibition against using it frivolously...Wow, what a headache.


Fnord, I take your point about the lack of support. That's partly why the idea appeals to me.

Film440. Very interesting. As somebody British, I have less of an issue with it, but I think some of your ideas are unappealing to the average American citizen, autistic or not.

Aspiesavant, In the right circumstances, I have always believed cognitive empathy to be potentially superior to instinctive empathy.

Last edited by Ardentmisanthrope23 on 21 Apr 2016, 6:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

Or, we could just embrace the fact that offending each other is inevitable and grant people the freedom to express any opinion they hold no matter how offensive it is to some (= which doesn't mean namecalling or personal attacks are OK).

This, I believe, is how mature people deal with being offended :

True.

The search for Utopia or the classless society is ultimately a futile and dangerous one. It involves, if it does not necessitate, the abdication of self-actualization to a totalitarian tyranny. Totalitarianism is not only Hell, but all the dream of paradise - the age-old dream of a world where everybody would live in harmony, united by a single common will and faith, without secrets from one another - where lack of conformity is a moral sin, and free though is a capital crime.

Every attempt to build a utopian society has failed; not for lack of faith and vision, but because of the corrupted morals and compromised ethics of their founders and leaders.

Aspergia would rapidly decay into a ghetto where people with autism would be discarded and forgotten, to be silent and forgotten by a world that has no patience for the disabled.

It doesn't get much worse than the part Huxleyian part Orwellian totalitarianism of today.

One of the points I mentioned earlier would account for the issues regarding a lack of empathy : o

Speaking of points, one mentioned earlier in this thread amounted to this:

"Because the vast majority of people on WP arent mature enough to run a country, a country managed by autistics is doomed to fail".

Correct me if I misinterpreted it, but this is simply bad logic, even if most autists on WP are representative of the world's population of autists. You see, the vast majority of neurotypicals are also not mature enough to run a country (You severely overestimate people in general if you believe otherwise), yet neurotypical countries aren't doing too bad (all things considered).

It's all about the right autistic people getting together to coordinate the founding of a for-autistics country. Those who are mature enough to overcome the flaws of autism, yet with the right skills and resources to found a country. The same applies to NTs, as well; look at those third-world chaotic countries that are run considerably worse than the average NT country. Corrupt NTs can mess up the handling of a country just as bad as a corrupt autistic.

Which is why I'm in the camp that says "it'd be as flawed as the average NT country, sure, but certainly a much better option for autists than anywhere else". I'm only considering the case where the founders are competent, not overinfluential schmucks.

Yes.

Whoever creates the first Aspergian community will create the facts on the ground, and then we have a tangible example of how to proceed. Better that than a thousand pages of debate on this forum.

Is VickyGleitz still posting here on WP? Her work in creating Autreat, Intentional residences, and her work with Ocate Cliffs has provided her with a great deal of experience on this subject.

It'd be a different place, but it certainly wouldn't be a utopia. It'd have it's share of benefits and problems like any other country.

Overinfluential schmucks?
Leaves me out TessSpoon

Off Topic:

I did not know people in the UK used the word "schmuck". I thought it was a New York/Jewish expression.

I'm a newbie to both diagnosis and WP, but would like to suggest a couple of points anyhow.

Neurodiversity is viewed by most of those concerned with productivity enhancement as a "good." IMO neurodiversity is a good in itself because it makes humanity both more interesting, and more likely to survive as our environment alters.
You know, like any other biodiversity.

A country limited to "autistics and aspergians" (hereinafter called "Spectrics") would be fragile and counter-productive, like other one-crop systems, and is something I'd emphatically oppose.

However, the original poster said only "a country run" by Spectrics. If "run" means that all political power would be in the hands of Spectrics, then again I would oppose it.

On the other hand, if "run" means only that Spectrics would be in political and social ascendance in the sense that male WASPs still are in the U.S. today, then I'm all for it. If it means that the default social and political culture would favor Spectrics, then I'm for it until Spectrics are provided all the supports they need to achieve their human potential.

On the third hand (for fans of Larry Niven's "The Mote in God's Eye"), I'm not convinced that Spectrics deserve preferences to help us achieve our human potential before the other minorities lined up for that prize like Trans people and, hell, women.

In the meantime, I suggest we can actually take baby steps like those I half-facetiously propose in my post:

http://the-art-of-autism.com/boosting-r ... or-action/

BTW, that post includes references to the sci-fi novel "This Alien Shore," which purports to include a utopian world for the neurodiverse.

If you read that post, PLEASE read the endnotes. That's where the reality is.

Finally, I posted a request for comments on another forum about creating a mutual support group for marketing the works of WP writers. That modest organization proposal has so far been met with silence. IMO that does not bode well for anyone working on organizing a whole country.

it'd be a very interesting, cute and massive country with cities resembling the finest japanese and chinese cities, which are therefore home to malls with every pretty outsider-art or animal-themed, shinkansen train-themed and car-themed item you can imagine, restarants with pictures on every item on the menu and ramen, candy and toy/keychain capsule vending machines on every corner, gamestops with very outsider unique games that feature everything from talking drums to sailor bears and television channels would be more interesting...

i imagine it's called "New Sakura City" and it be like tokyo and beijing but bigger and not as crowded and has a huge blue mountain surrounding it and cranes live there. it'd become the world's most beloved city run by autistics and artistics

i also have a special interest in japan, japanese language and culture, esp. the cute kitties and pandas

also, we'd have shinkansen socks, onigiri, cafe latte and even shinkansen stickers and puzzle erasers! and i imagine we'd have better and more patient understanding school system and we'd be super rich yet generous and give money and food to the poor

... then we'd all wake up from dreaming in Autististan and wonder if we would have anything to eat today ...

You, the Aspie or Autie are the one percent. They, the NTs are the ninetynine percent. The burden of adaptation and accomidation falls on us.

We almost founded an Autistic state on a patch of Terra Nullius between Serbia and Croatia. Unfortunately f*****g Liberland beat us by 4 days.