Autism is a neurological orientation which equips us with a predominantly individual nature as opposed to the predominantly social nature of others.
All humans are on a neurological spectrum that ranges from individual identity to collective identity. At one extreme end you have the ultimate individual who acts based on their individual judgment alone, remains immune to any outside influences and regards everybody as an equal (no more and no less), no matter how different they may be; at the other end you have the ultimate social person who has absorbed all expectations of the group they are part of without any sense of individuality and who regards their group as superior, therefore ostracising and discriminating against all other groups, outsiders and misfits.
And while we all are somewhere in between these two extremes, you will find that autistic people are on the very far individual end of the spectrum which provides us with both an intellectual advantage and a societal disadvantage.
The societal disadvantage is well-known. Due to our individual nature we are unable to fulfil the social expectations of those around us and are therefore excluded from basically everything, such as social circles or employment. But then there’s the intellectual advantage.
I guess we all love human progress. But progress isn’t the result of conformity; the world is changed by those who think and act individually.
8 May 2021