An Aspie planet?

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It seems that a lot of the things that people complain about regarding Asperger's are consequences of being in the minority...not getting accommodated, being expected to communicate "like everyone else," getting hassled for being different. Well, there can be some perks to being in a minority if your minority dominates the political power structure, but successful politicians tend to be good at reading people and good at lying, making it kind of hard for Aspies to get up there.

So, I wonder what an Aspie world would be like? Would some of the burdens be eliminated? What challenges would the off-spectrum people face?

I started thinking about this subject when my Aspie friend shared some of his adventures.

Perhaps there would be good accommodation for and awareness of sensory oversensitivities, communication styles that would be tailored to suit Aspies (but which Auties might still have trouble with - perhaps they would be the equivalent of learning-disabled), and schooling, entertainment, and easily accessed jobs where Aspies would thrive. Without the communication rifts, and with the ability to control their environments more easily, life for Aspies might be much easier.

Perhaps people off the spectrum would have Focused Perception Disorders (FPDs), characterized primarily by weaknesses in perception of details and intensity and sustainment of attention. Other common features would be across-the-board sensory insensitivity/non-finickiness, inconsistency in the ability to apply logic and follow rules and routines, hyper-awareness of other minds (which could lead to lying/devious behavior) and tendencies to draw lots of parallels between different things (potential gifts of the disorders), and usually (but not always) high interest in socializing. Overuse of gestures and underuse of logic and precision in speech might lead to some degree of communication difficulties. Despite their precocious development of insight into the concept of other people and other minds, they may still be somewhat puzzled by the minds of most people and make many missteps due to faulty assumptions. FPDers could rock the jobs where their perception style was useful, but may have trouble in school/apprenticeship/whatever kind of education there is, and in other jobs. There could be books and resources on FPD's to allow them to learn more about those strange normal people they inhabit the world with, and FPDers would probably eat these up because they'd love to be able to communicate and connect with more people. There might also be some programs - maybe computer programs - that would help FPDers work on their logic, detail-perception, and focus so that they could get by more easily in the non-FPD world.

It's also interesting to think of how my Aspie friend and I might be different from how we are now if we were raised in such a world. As it is, he's more outgoing than I am, and in some ways more socially aware and sensitive. But maybe he never would have wanted to be more outgoing were he raised in an Aspie world - he would have stayed more like he was as a child. Or maybe he would still be outgoing, but in a distinctly Aspie-ish way, so that he might not seem particularly FPD-ish except in his interest in socializing.

I would probably be a mild/high-functioning FPDer who could almost pass for normal, but I'd have a few quirks. For instance, I'd be strangely non-finicky and could use all different kinds of lighting, clothing, and the like; have to wear children's hats and bike helmets because they don't make adult ones small enough for me (I have a small head even for a non-PDDer); have trouble sustaining passion for most things although I'd have brief spurts of passion; and may be a little sloppy with some precise things but maybe not all that bad, sort of like a mild dyslexic who only transposes letters when tired.

An Aspie Planet can only work out of the vast majority has a common goal and is willing to accept that there are multiple ways to reach it. Cause they're all still individuals, who could each have their own values and their vision of what is good and bad in life. That's why an 'Aspie Planet' has to be diverse, which means that there will always be some people who still can't fit in. Also, diversity will lead to clashes of any degree at some point, so a similar situation like we have on Planet Earth could easily be created when a majority on Aspie Planet seizes power (because they managed to convince the largest percentage of the population of the fact that they're visions on life are right and others are wrong - or just a threat to their visions).

What I'm trying to say is that an Aspie Planet is no solution for a better life for Aspies, as least not in the long run. The differences remain, and thus the problems too. I call it the gift and the curse of the free spirit that we as humans have, and since Aspies are humans too Aspie Planet will have it too.

The yearning for a place and time where we could easily accomodate is understandable though. It's what every human (hell, even every organism) wants. Me too, but with all the needs a human being has, it seems virtually impossible IMO.

Good points. There would likely not be much or anything in the way of problems associated specifically with being "AS" anymore. But there could still be plenty of other things that problems are associated with - disabilities, mental illness, unusual temperaments, being part of a disenfranchised minority of any sort. And actually, there could still be at least one problem associated with AS, in a way: revenge crimes by the disenfranchised minorities. But then, "AS" would probably not be defined as the specific majority that's being targeted, unless, perhaps, "FPDers" were the perpetrators. But then, "FPD" might not even be defined as a distinct entity; there could be a totally different way of cutting the psychological pie that does not lump together people who lack traits that in this world are associated with the autistic spectrum.