Beyond Autistic Identity

As my 72nd birthday approaches,I stand on a figurative mountaintop.The view is vertiginous and I am so high above the common herd that people in the market squares register like gaily costumed ants Though I am acutely short sighted ,from my “dragon s eyrie “ I can clearly see beyond the present day to events after I am dead which if people persist in their habits,will lead to the collapse of our civilisation.

PLATO had classified people into the GOLD caste (the ruling caste ) the SILVER caste (the merchant caste ) and the BRONZE caste (everyone else ) in The Republic Down the ages there have been ways of classifying personality types by such eminent psychologists as H J Eysenck which are in use for example to weed out conscriptees unfit to carry guns A Raymond Cattell from America perfected his 16-Personality-Factor Scale which seems to be a far more reliable way of assessing personalities than any other system .

Mendeleev discovered the Periodic Table of chemical elements Alan Moelwyn Wright is supposed to have set out a Periodic Table of personality types which is compatible with Cattell s classification He declared that unlike chemical elements that CANNOT be transmuted it should be possible for people of any personality type to TRANSMUTE THEMSELVES to “higher types of person” by dint of STERN WILLPOWER and PERSISTENCE at demanding activities of any kind So Alan s Moelwyn Pedagogy is directed at the cultivation of Virtues in all in his care

I am NOT the boy who set sail for Dieppe in September 1960 and about a week later was enormously enriched for my stay in Dieppe unaccompanied by my parents I trust that on my life s journey though I have made many mistakes (and on several occasions been a split second from a fatal accident ) I have transmuted myself through dint of my willpower to become a Short Sighted Dragon of Alan s own mental and moral stature

Since diagnosis with AS I am as conscious of my Asperger differentness as I am of my amputated leg – for most of my waking existence unaware of it just as right now wearing Gripperbreeks I can feel the library floor with my right foot Or indeed be aware that I am wearing glasses I AM VERY AWARE how I differ from the common herd whenever I am in a supermarket or suffer the ubiquitous RACKET imposed on me even in banks .

My Asperger differentness is therefore a total alienation from contemporary “culture “ I had received a brochure advertising the “delights “ in the new county of Falkirkshire all pitched at a mental age of no higher than 14 Is there anything happening in Falkirkshire other than the monthly Toy Fair at Graeme High School where I used to buy up bits for my model trains (and bought NOTHING on my last visit?) Or perhaps a stroll along the Union Canal towpath yes there is! A well preserved reach of the Antonine Wall !

I may be looking at my past through rose tinted glasses but it seems to me as Paul Kingsnorth the environmental writer declares “there has been a scouring out of social value “ In the name of Profit everywhere resembles everywhere else but for a few historic buildings which mark out each town along ancient highways whereas when I hitch hiked along the Great Lands End Road as a young man every market town was excitingly different Oh the magic of discovering monuments like the Monks Lavatorium in Sherborne which had hitherto been merely a smudge of rooftops seen from a passing train ! Then in 1962 I was footloose and free in North Devon my birthplaceland to discover how little had changed in Bideford where I had lived till age five and a half

I observed youths with the tiny music-players like hearing aids plugged into their ears on a bus and questioned a young mechanic about these devices They were entirely lost to the world,these youths and on that journey would not have spotted landmarks in time for them to alight from that ,the last bus from Glasgow to Dunfermline I recalled a SF story of my boyhood about a world where most people had deliberately lost touch with reality by “dream-tanks “ where in trances they acted out being beautiful and famous ( Is this the plot of Huxley s Brave New World ?) Last Sunday I went for a stroll to the former shale bing I call Lupin Hill just 15 minutes walk through Townhill Woods and dense undergrowth where a century ago there was a coal mine and fantasised how someone from 1913 might have felt as he stepped through time to find this amazing wilderness where once there was deafening racket and belching smoke The afterglow lingered and I felt supremely grateful that I am an Englishman and I have the faculty to appreciate such simple joys as that afterglow

In my other essay CULTIVATION OF HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS I expound the idea that the destiny for absolutely everybody is to grow into a Hand of God by the exercise of STERN WILLPOWER I write about the Evolution of Higher Consciousness and Darwin s role as indeed a Messenger of God equal to Socrates and Christ by his formulation of the idea of evolution I now declare that we on the autistic spectrum MAY HAVE BEEN CREATED THE WAY WE ARE expressly to work as a synergy to disseminate a Counter-Culture or Moral revolution which would galvanise NT people into developing all their latent abilities in order to adapt and survive in a world where inevitable catastrophes would bring about a severe population crash Perhaps even render huge areas effectively uninhabitable for foreseeable centuries

I ask if it is entirely presumptuous of me ,David Seagrave a quite undistinguished Englishman to have expounded through Alan Wright s voice ,a path to transmutation of every soul into the state I call Dragonhood (see my essay : Tadpoles ,Frogs and Dragons ) The lucky endowment of AS ,being moulded by Red Hill School s self motivated learning and the paradoxes of the “Hither Green Row “ and the accident near Stafford all synerge to give rise to the present moment where I on my figurative mountaintop stand supremely grateful and ready to throw a mental ladder down to the marketsquares so people can climb to my dizzy height and in doing so grow into Dragonhood Who will lend me a light omnibus and driver ? Who in the market squares wants to accompany me up a lofty mountain on a bright Sunday to discover the presence of God within themselves ?

In my self-created Dragonhood do I soar far beyond autistic identity ?
David Seagrave Dunfermline Library 16 – 8-2013

seen a light?

Comedy billed as not for the easily offended usually fairly certainly means not for me. I'm ever so'seeeeeerious, ya see, with a sick world of injustice always at the forefront of thought, and seriously down on all the ethicality of everyone who has an emotionally cruel sense of humour, which is indistinguishable from being an emotionally destructive person seriously. 1980s alternative comedy was just a fashion statement for blatant bullying and violence, for delight in destroying everything anyone cares about.

But there is a very real practical question around how referring to injustices in comedy sometimes helps the serious impact against them. Like the old Berlin Wall graffiti "Jump over and join the party". Like Life of Brian. When is comedy that refers to injustices ever constructive? Ever not just a further kicking in suffering's face?

When it is open to thinking about. When it is not an act of bullying aggro with a socially intimidating effect. The way all that distressingly aggressive 1980s alternative comedy fired up all that is ugliest in peer groups, is why it failed to get across the serious political messages it sometimes hoped to.

Fringe stand-up performer Abigoliah Schamaun makes you think, because every time she crashes through an offence barrier she actually pauses and reflects on it, checks out how the audience feels with it. It gives the whole question of offence a significantly different feel. It is more survivable for the audience, and each time you wonder whether it is more justified for the performer, because you are not just getting hammered by it, passively. For usually that aspie unfriendly helpless position, take whatever I throw at you and like it, is the relationship an audience who feel ever so super-cool really have towards a comic who wants to make them sick. An audience who have the fairness of their own feelings acknowledged are in a stronger feeling, better feeling, less pushed around, position.

Seriously don't want that light bulb she eats to be real, or she won't be performing for long. No audience can pass on the reason for doing it, because there isn't one.

Maurice Frank

cumulative impact of the benefit changes

We should circulate matters of practical importance to folks' life viability. The answer to the problem that it might make the blog appear politically biased, is to state a willingness also to post for any local aspie who wants to take the opposite view.

This is circulated by Liam Byrne the shadow minister for work and pensions, seeking for folks to ask their MPs, of any party, to support a parliamentary vote for a study of the total effect all the benefit changes combined. Not just of each single change in isolation, which can always be made to sound less. Some of the impact comes from combined effects:

After more than 3 years in power, it’s time for this government to finally come clean and tell us exactly what impact their changes will have on the lives of disabled people and their carers.

So on Wednesday 10 July, Labour will drag ministers to the House of Commons to debate the changes they have made that affect disabled people, and at about 16:00 we will force a vote to demand a Cumulative Impact Assessment by Oct 2013 at the latest – and we will be calling on MPs from across the House to support it.

I am asking supporters to help build pressure on the government in 3 ways:

• Write to your MP and ask them to back the motion
• Write to your local paper and explain why we urgently need a cumulative impact assessment
• Tweet your support using #MakeRightsReality – here’s the link to the motion (liambyrne.co.uk/?p=4534)

Please share this page with anyone who might be interested.

Here’s the motion in full: “That this House believes that the Government should publish a cumulative impact assessment of the changes made by this Government that affect disabled people (to be published by Oct 2013).”

blow out loud

Campaign mail from Peter Gregson, a council worker and campaigner for the council to have system for its workers to do whistleblowing on malpractices, anonymously so they can avoid getting victimised in their jobs for it. Started as an Edinburgh campaign but this petition applies the idea to the whole country, because why not? His campaign is at www.kidsnotsuits.com

Hi petition-signer, As well as the article, the Sunday Express opinion leader gave the petition a nice puff yesterday. If you want to add comments and sign the petition, be my guest. It's at www.scottish.parliament.uk/gettinginvolved/petitions/whistleblowing and has 38 signatures now. It's "Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to support the introduction of staff whistle-blower hotlines to report mismanagement in Scottish local authorities, with reports overseen by councillors from each party."

Forward this e-mail onto others; folk who live anywhere can sign- there's no restrictions - and no minimum number needed to get the petition heard. Edinburgh Council, due to discuss the matter on Aug 29, proposes a weak whistleblowing policy - hiding behind the Scottish Government Councillors Code of Conduct which tells Councillors "not to engage in direct operational management of the Council's services; that is the responsibility of the Council's employees". Clearly this piece of legislation is being misread, and this is our chance to show that.

You tell'em

Links received through the local bedroom tax campaign, on a reaction to a problem of GPs not knowing the regulations affecting them concerning patients' positions if they get kickings from the Work Capability Assessment system. "Doctors have been washing their hands by refusing to provide Further Medical Evidence (citing workload and fees/contractual issues as reasons) to patients appealing against erroneous decisions - 40% of which are overturned without representation and 72-80% with representation. We have pioneered a solution which would work for the GPs and patients: " blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/11/21/important-black-triangle-dpac-regs-29-35-campaign-failed-your-dwpatos-wca-intend-to-appeal-download-these-documents-for-your-gp/">blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/11/21/important-black-triangle-dpac-regs-29-35-campaign-failed-your-dwpatos-wca-intend-to-appeal-download-these-documents-for-your-gp/"> This is the letter we're going to distribute: blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/05/05/leading-doctors-protest-at-cruel-disability-assessments-letter/ The submission to the Scottish Parliament to be handed to Dr Buckman and BMA Scotland's Dr McDevitt: blacktrianglecampaign.org/2013/06/05/black-triangle-campaign-submission-to-the-scottish-parliament-health-committee-open-evidence-session-on-the-role-of-gps-and-the-dwp-atos-work-capability-assessment-regime/

attack on the core of a genuine aspie scene

Picked up in conversation within Elas a morally shocking news of local group practice elsewhere, in south west England particularly. Not knowing how many groups this applies to, nor wanting to back them into a corner when it needs keeping easy for them to change away from this horrid practice, it is better not to name a particular group. Instead, to flag up that this needs checking out by prospective joiners of aspie groups in that whole reigon. There is an aspie group maybe several, run by one of the big autism charities, newcomers to the group are getting vetted, for their compatibility and whether they are disruptive, before they are being allowed to join.

Even worse, it is said to be existing women members of the group who want this nastiness done, in order to filter out men for acceptable non-lustfulness of character - that is gender discrimination and PC taken to a tarring attack on all men. For no clear line exists between social behaviour to befriend a group and social behaviour that a cliquey bully can conveniently interpret as sexual.

Both groups and charities included in these vetting practices are a direct cause of any suicides that result from the rejection experience. England still lacks an outlet like we have in ANS to pursue the cause of holding perpetrators to account on exactly those terms. Aspies who have already experienced emotionally damaging wrongs or feuds from what turn out to be other aspies, in other places, might then see the vetting charity for its own reasons decide to reject them and accept their adversary. That would be an emotional abuse.

These things are a test, and they must be kept glaringly publicly a test, of the aspie scene's genuineness in each region. For the many of us who have signed up to the message of "nothing about us without us", to speak for ourselves without going through the big charities, we know that our true voice is only through a free and tolerant aspie scene, without any purging rejections affecting who it consists of. It does not consist of the voice of the filtered favoured select of a big charity. That is a controlled puppet false scene.

The concept of "disruptive" is very obviously politically abusable. Throughout life it can be used for controlling and manipulating any group into consisting only of who it suits the folks already dominating it to have it consist of. This is a fundamental test of liberty and of being a genuine voice: any participant group of any nature that has a filter for being disruptive is an unfree facade and effectively a cult, and merits distrust accordingly. Anyone who determined to continue to pursue an item of fairness, an undoing of an injustice done to them, such as a rubbishing of their character or a kicking into an inferior social status, or a very practical exclusion that worsens their lives, can be called disruptive. Unscrupulous groups who prefer them to shut up and accept a noncommittal brushing off will do this. Every case of calling such a person disruptive is always a case of abuse.

Maurice Frank

Atomised

There are several atomic clock exact time websites, that you can google in an instant. Surprisingly, why should I be surprised what a cynic, yes they do show the same minutes and seconds, the same time. They may not show the same hour depending on what time zone they are for, of course.

Useful if you are a scientist timing an experiment or a sporty competitor stressfully timing a race, and you have a spare computer screen handy or perhaps most folks bring them up on their web connected mobiles. But when else in your life would you think you might have any need to look up the atomic pinpointed time?

How about, when see that the digital clock at the Ferrytoll park and ride bus station north of the Forth Bridge is 2 minutes fast? You see, as I did this evening, that while the clock is displayed to passengers, it appears to be being used to time bus departures too. Several buses itemised as departing at what that clock showed as their correct times but were in fact significantly earlier.

It explained the mystery of an absent and missed connection that I had clearly got there in time to catch, onto one of the town routes into east Dunfermline. The atomic clock sites were the confirmation I needed that it was not my time that was wrong, to know for a fact there was a clock fault to itemise to Stagecoach along with the early departures. But arriving just after working hours had ended on a Friday evening we can guess this will go on all weekend at least. Anyway, if you travel through the Ferrytoll, check your watch by the atomic clock websites before you go, and you can check on whether the clock there is still wrong, and complain about the effect on passengers if they don't fix it for their timekeeping.

That is when we need atomic clocks. When we are trying to keep transport running properly instead of lying down and accepting having it run any old how. It is also when we need a blog based in Edinburgh to write about Fife on. You notice that 2 successive posts here have been about Fife, but the now defunct aspie group that used to exist in Fife and became too controlled never chose to go for enough of a free speaking culture to have a blog, did it, you will remember? Even when that group was still going it was still us who served Fife for this democratically necessary voicing side of what should be all local aspie groups' life.

Maurice Frank