In our society the fiction of homo economicus manifests itself in the beliefs associated with the language of behaviourism, which exists in multiple dialects, and which has come to permeate and pollute many disciplines in the social sciences
Autistic people are anthropologists by birth in a very literal sense. Trauma and autistic lived experience in Western industrialised societies are very hard to separate.
The New Zealand government is already committed to banning gay conversion therapy. The time for change is now. Register your support for banning all forms of “conversion therapy” in New Zealand.
The book project The Beauty of Collaboration at Human Scale is now in the peer review stage. Through the lenses of evolutionary biology and cultural evolution, small groups are the organisms within human society – in contrast to individuals, corporations, and nation states. The implications for our so-called civilisation are profound. All feedback is welcome!
Many autists reject all forms of social power. Unless we have autistic people in our environment that nurture our sense of agency and intrinsic motivations, trauma may prevent us from learning how to trust others and build eye level relationships.
In a W.E.I.R.D. culture where autistic people are pathologised, it can be helpful to point to reflections on culture made by outsiders and members of minorities who are marginalised and often persecuted.
The definition of normality in the industrial era is based on the metaphor of society as a factory and on the metaphor of people as machines. Our laws and social norms have been shaped by these metaphors to a far greater extent than most people are able to comprehend without an in-depth explanation.
As I have been pointing out for the last few years, the commodification of neurodiversity and the exploitation of autistic people is in full swing.
As long as society confuses homo economicus with homo sapiens we are more than “a bit off course”. The exploitative nature of our “civilised” cultures is top of mind for many neurodivergent people. In contrast, many neuronormative people seem to deal with the trauma via denial, resulting in profound levels of cognitive dissonance.
Our world is changing: pandemics, climate change, technology. Will society respond to these crises with revolution or with collaboration?
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