“If he can only perform good or only perform evil, then he is a clockwork orange—meaning that he has the appearance of an organism lovely with colour and juice but is in fact only a clockwork toy to be wound up by God or the Devil.”
― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange
Social Fantasies, The Dispossessed, Mass Murder and The Aliens Among Us
Some of you know I have Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and looking over what I wrote several years ago ( before I taught myself how to curb my overuse of language) some of what I wrote is nearly unintelligible, as it seems I had a obsession with language in of itself as a subject of dissection. Growing up with this disorder , which I learned later is somewhat related to OCD in terms of becoming locked on a subject until every detail is mined and yet if there is a even a hint of chaotic, or unruly ordering in a social setting or in a convergence of unplanned events, I would retreat, and\ or misinterpret occurrences as what normally constitutes a cue with a normality of responses in most, I was often in varying states of ceaseless guessing as to other's aims if I were from another planet. In some ways this was a disguised gift, being able to see through the demarcation between what individuals say and the sort of illogical entanglements that are present in the human condition, sort of resembling a a befuddled Dr Spock, who remains and is prone to another genetic aspect of my host which is chronic depression, for which medication has largely smoothed over.
It made for a strange childhood. In school sports, I was flummoxed to the consternation of my peers and gym teachers equally. In high school, I ditched every class, and yet....while in grade school, I was reading at a college level. I was bored by the curriculum beginning in third grade, and this led to a downward descent into a larger alienation, that culminated in my leaving high school and home at the age of seventeen.
There is more to my own story and as regular readers know, I very seldom make myself the subject of this blog, and the reason for this diversion is to recognize the socially dispossessed and the lack of role models that these individuals can relate to. Especially in light of the mass murders that have become a societal normalcy, that, more often than not, are perpetrated and planned by young men whose motives seem alien to us. However, I have had my taste of wearing but a small portion of their alienation and I suppose, in varying degrees, we all have.
In the last post, I wanted to express the increasing abstractions of our culture that are built largely upon fantasies, which then also afflicts darker cells of various synthetic play acting, such as "shooter games" or brighter teeth, corporate promotion of psychoactive social drugs, that reminds me, at times of a cross between Fahrenheit 451 and a Clockwork Orange.
" Experts" can cannot recognize the embedding of the social deniability of ritualized and the accompanying glorification of violence, the demonizing of our political "enemies" the language sublimated in the "wars" against drug use ( other than caffeine, alcohol and tobacco), wars against poverty, wars against illegal immigration and the corresponding rise in gang activity that takes these role models as a channeling form of suggestion and places them in a mode of self empowerment, much like capitalism run a muck in a sociopathic form of Darwinism, much like the sublimated desires of some multinationals. The superimposition of these common traits of normality reminds me of Gurdjieff's observation the the study of human psychology is the study of abnormal psychology.
All of this brings me to the story of Temple Grandin, who recently has been a fulcrum for my ruminations on the loss of human life, the loss of social recognition, the loss of the gifts that the dispossessied have, all of which seem to indicate a judgement upon appearances alone, re: the brighter teeth, the more youthful appearances, the alienation that those that are different in their behavior often face either humiliation at the pleasure of others, or worse, out right torture.
For those of you who are curious as to the insights Temple offers, follow this link. You may be surprised.
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-temple-grandin-20130611-dto,0,2848012.htmlstory
Reading the above I couldn't get it out of my head that the same state that is fortunate enough to have Temple Grandn is also the same state that the Columbine and Aurora shootings took place.
ReplyDeleteQuite awhile ago, I read Elaine Paigel's "The Origin of Satan" which is essentially a history of how the term was used to demonize "the other". Kids who are bright, socially awkward, ( "the other" )whose talents are not channeled, who are socially isolated by being ostracized and \or humiliated daily seemingly take their cues from their cultural environment, and then their peers become "the other" upon whom they wage war, and leave corpses, and ultimately become isolated for life in a prison cell. The contrast between Temple an teenage mass murderers seems to be a parable of gifts and how they are either used or squandered, understood or demonized by peers, and society at large who have grandiose fantasies based upon the marketplace of narcissism and the unrealistic glorification of violence. One form of acting them out is a norm while the other is taboo. A mixed message to the young... to be sure.
ReplyDeletePerhaps I'm seeing parallels where there aren't necessarily any, but from what I've heard in the news the intelligence communities are quite concerned that all the "bright, socially awkward" kids they've been hiring for their skills are turning out to be idealists with a strong moral compass like Edward Snowden and Bradley Manning.
ReplyDeleteObviously a different environment than high school, but it seems there are those that still want to demonize them as "the other" and for not conforming to their ideal of what model citizens should be.
I highly recommend the movie about Temple Grandin, called Temple Grandin, and all of her books but particularly The Way I See It. When you read her story, she had a helluva struggle coming to terms with 'society'. It was a huge battle which was won with the help of caring and interested parents. From a psychosociological point of view, 'society' is a construct and one that many people with so-called ASD have a hard time dealing with. But this applies to so-called 'normal' people too - some of whom also see through the bullshit and choose to consciously resist conformity. One of the real lessons of the Temple Grandin story is that she fought and won the battle of becoming an authentic individual. She contributed immensely useful insights for 'society'. On these matters that cannot be said for over 99% of 'society'.
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