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Controversial Topic - if you could spread autism would you?

Peter

So we've been having a debate for some time in this thread if autism could be 'cured' should it be? So never being one to stray from controversy I'll up it a level. If there was a virus, utterly harmless, less dangerous than the common cold but it would cause pregnant mothers to give birth to autistic children. It wouldn't impair their intelligence but there would be a whole new generation where almost everyone was autistic. Would you release such a virus?

  • in reply to piggy1401

    I would like to think an autistic society would be a more liberal one too. Because autistic people can be so different from each other we know that difference is normal and not to be punished or ground out by the meat mincer of social normal. We're used to offending people accidentally and hopefully that should teach us to develop thick skin and engage with arguments first in a less personal way. Maybe we'd be more willing to let people be them selves and have controversial views before we tried to excommunicate them from society. I'd like to think so. A more open society where debate is valued and people are allowed to play devils advocate with out being pilloried would benefit the world I think.

  • in reply to piggy1401

    It is an interesting conjecture. In some ways our world might be very much kinder if it had a lot more autistic people. A lot of societies evils come from marginalising others. Finding excuses for not showing them compassion. Reasons not to consider them your responsibility. Excuses not to sympathise with their pain. But for autistic people sympathy is more of an intellectual exercise than a gut reaction I think. Certainly we don't have the secret cure for the worlds ills but I do feel we'd more inclined to try to fix them. It seems to me the tendency to value the lives of the popular, attractive and wealthy more than the lives of others is very much a social construct. Something we might be less bound by.

    Why should a gay pop-star dropping dead from AIDS be bigger news than all the homeless who die of cold each winter? Why should some pet at risk of being slaughtered for foot and mouth be a news item when children dying in road traffic collisions is a much bigger issue? I can't help but think an autistic generation might make a more rational attempt to fix things up instead of just jumping on what ever popular bandwagon might be in vogue at the time.

  • personally no, as i sometimes find it really hard being autistic and i wouldn't want to wish that on anyone, however if the whole generation had it then that would be slightly different as everyone would be unique and there wouldn't be as much bullying of autistic people as everyone experienced it.

    would you?