The Autism Spectrum According to Autistic People

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The Autism Spectrum
According to Autistic People

NeuroClastic

Change | Divergently

Relationships

How (the lack of) diversity in the way we collectively think about the future shapes the futures that are (im)possible

Jorn Bettin July 1, 2024

The NeurodiVerse Days of Solidarity offer a rich opportunity for omni-directional learning across cultures and geographies. The diversity in the way we collectively think about the future shapes the futures that are possible! There is an urgent need to catalyse intersectional ecologies of care all over the world, and to expose and oppose the internalised ableism that is holding our societies hostage.

Decolonising education

Jorn Bettin May 24, 2024

The April NeurodiVerse Days of Solidarity catalysed a range of conversations, with many threads weaving through the topic of education. Several topics resulted in in-depth discussion and new emerging ongoing collaborations, which is beautiful to see. Changes towards a more egalitarian culture that deeply fully appreciates cultural, biological, and ecological diversity are changes that improve the lives of all people, re-align humanity with our evolutionary heritage, and help us nurture sacred relationships beyond the human.

compost heap

Composting money and power

Jorn Bettin May 7, 2024

Money and social power gradients are abstract cultural artefacts designed to defy compostability – social conventions that we can accept or reject, which are perpetuated by careless and learning disabled societies – creating conditions that are literally hostile to all life. “Build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” ― Buckminster Fuller

Trust in Human Scale

Jorn Bettin April 16, 2024

Autistic ways of being are part of a culture that deserves the same respect as any other culture. The key element that holds together all the threads, which has been systematically eroded in Westernised societies: the notion of trust, including the role of trustworthy, sacred relationships within the context of ecologies of care beyond the human. If, as a species, we have one responsibility within the planetary ecosystem, it is to recognise that it is time to set the record straight on the toxicity of a culture that normalises and even celebrates competitive and deceptive behaviour.

Understanding power and de-powering

Jorn Bettin April 7, 2024

The normalisation of social power gradients and powered-up relationships is the terminal disease that plagues all empires. Since we live in the context of the convulsions of dying empires, it is important to understand the cultural dynamics that are unfolding.

Co-Creating NeurodiVentures and A♾tistic Whānau

Jorn Bettin April 3, 2024

There is an urgent need to catalyse Autistic collaboration and co-create healthy Autistic, Artistic, and otherwise neurodivergent whānau all over the world. Autists depend on assistance from others in ways that differ from the cultural norm – and that is pathologised in hypernormative societies. However, the many ways in which non-autistic people depend on others is considered “normal”. The endless chains of trauma must be broken. 

bell curve

Life defies the dehumanising cut-off points of the bell curve

Jorn Bettin February 20, 2024

The global mono-cult pretends that all aspects of life can be categorised and understood in terms of normality – by the hump of the bell curve. But the living planet does not conform to anthropocentric normality, it is chaotic, it is beautifully and awesomely diverse.

web of life

Life is relational and beyond human comprehension

Jorn Bettin February 13, 2024

Life is a highly dynamic system. Reflecting deeply on the relational nature of life allows us to become reacquainted with human emotional limits. Powered-up relationships are inherently incompatible with healthy ways of being human. Along the way we also begin to re-appreciate the limits of human comprehensibility and sense making.

Intersectional solidarity and ecological wisdom

Jorn Bettin December 11, 2023

The objectives of the Autistic and neurodiversity civil rights movements overlap significantly with the struggles of indigenous peoples. All people are fully human. Especially those who are systematically marginalised have developed distinct cultures and ecologies of care beyond the human. Much of the deep collective ecological wisdom and the sacred relationships that we can develop at human scale transcend the explanatory powers of the narrow silos of modern scientific disciplines.

De-powered dialogue

Jorn Bettin November 27, 2023

The smallest unit of learning is a feedback loop. Power is the privilege of not needing to learn. The dynamic process of life is best understood in relational terms. At human scale, all healthy relationships, independently of the level of intimacy, are characterised by the maintenance of de-powered dialogue – by a mutual deep desire to understand a precious living being.

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