With BBC 4 showing a documentary in the coming days on our pursuit of Utopia...(http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2017/bbc-four-utopia-season). Just for a bit of weekend grey matter exercise.....What would this utopian state be like in your opinion?
I think my Utopia would be would be the freedom to identify myself as autistic and for everyone in my environment to understand what that means and accept it (including myself). I've watched and listened to some of the LBGT programming around the anniversary of homosexuality becoming legal and I see so many parallels with us adults realising we are autistic, we are different, but we are not wrong and we exist. If you recognise yourself as gay all you have to do is 'come out' and although I'm sure that isn't necessarily easy at least it's possible and you have an identity. On the other hand I know there are still bigoted attacks on that community so maybe I'm just living in my naïve bubble.
Between the books, the blogs and this forum I have no doubt that I am autistic but had to persuade the GP to refer and heaven knows how long the wait will be for someone in the medical profession to confirm what I already know. I was already heading for crisis when I started looking for answers and began to find the truth of what autism is and that it was me, now there's what feels like an infinite anxiety ridden wait and I feel like I'm in suspended animation. If a month or so ago I didn't know that autism could be anything other than the relatively extreme media version (unempathetic, mute and all the rest) how can I expect those around me to have a clue what it's like to live from my point of view?
I like your idea of an island, though I'm fed up with it being so windy around here so much of the time (near the coast) and I guess Islands are probably windy a lot. I used to fantasise about living together but separately with several people in a great big house, everyone having their niche, a commune I guess! But then again I don't like people, ha! Be interesting to see if anyone else has any ideas that are more or less realistic.
Hi Spotty
like your parallels with the LBGT community. So would your Utopia mean acceptance?
For me:
- acceptance that we are all unique
- understanding
- not needing to explain myself
- a place of peace
- a safe place to socialise...if and when I choose to
Hi Elephant, I guess acceptance is everything, it's all the LBGT community wanted/want. Your points about understanding and not needing to explain yourself are interesting as I've realised I need to apply them to myself as well. I mean that if I can accept the autism lens I should stop trying to explain and justify myself to myself and accept that is how it is. I'm not in that place yet.
I guess my fantasy commune was about a place of safety and safe socialisation too. It's good to find there is a reason that social interaction is so bloody difficult and draining but how do you translate that into life and figure out where to draw lines, my take on all this is very tempered by the fact that I don't have a proper income so I'm dependent on a NT partner and feel like I have to be careful, I do fall into black and white worst case scenario thinking here.
And now I'll shut up before I go off topic completely.
You can jump topic whenever you like Spotty...that is what we are all here for.
have you checked out LoneWarriors comments on The So Scared thread...
is ASD just not fitting in to the current social expectations of behaviour? How would things change if you felt that you did! Maybe you do and we just need to all shift our perception.
the idea of a commune keeps coming up, which us interesting....
Probably an island with a climate something like we have in England. Room enough for each inhabitant to have a few acres. Easy access to the mainland, but our own shops for most of the basics.
Apart from that - pretty much as everyone else has said. Acceptance, respect.
And internet connection!
And could it be called Autopia?
Much better name than mine!
So my light hearted version of Utopia would have:
Touch screen devices would definately be swapped for things with big clicky switches,
Lights would dim as you look towards them,
People would not actually be able to get to close to you, and would only be able to talk to you when you are ready to listen to them,
Hairdressers would not talk to you or have mirrors,
Supermarkets would let ASD people in when all the shelves are full, before they get ransacked by people who leave things in the wrong places,
If politicians lie, or are proven not to understand they would be sacked immediately,
Social media would not allow people to tell others what they have been doing if it is not some sort of life changing event. People who then break this and tell people every time they eat something would be silenced for a set period of time,
Haha! Yes. I go to a Turkish barber. Not only does he do a great haircut - he doesn't speak English very well. So... all I hear is snip-snip-snip - and all I say is 'Please' and 'Thanks'.