What is Handicapped?
The Definition of Handicapped
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Persons living in prison need ‘looking after’ by the State, as do the number of unfortunate legion of unemployed, but they are not referred to as ‘handicapped’. (Avril would say that a husband needs looking after too - is he handicapped ?). We have had incidences throughout history such as the period and advent of slave labour where men took slaves, in more recent times to bath, clothe and shave them the butler and maid of aristocracy, the au pair systems, and harems of the Middle Eastern culture.
What exactly, in New Millennium terms, is the state of being ‘handicapped’? The ‘love yourself’ philosophy of current near-hypnotic media advertising companies (some who resort to subliminal and certainly psychological induced promotions) have subscribed to the creation of a new superficial order of being that have a prejudice towards the handicapped, as thought of in terms of mental disability.
These handicapped must always be kept down as second class citizens (in history it was women) in order that ‘normal’ people feel a superiority (over them). “Normal” people therefore need the handicapped in order to feel an assumed superiority.
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A Pressured Society
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A younger generation seduced by the careful production of Hollywood’s “Tinsel Town” cinemaphotographic films, videos and computer games that highlight impractical and fantasy conquest, have led us into a society pressurised into thinking that we can achieve unreal levels. (The general viewing public are unaware and don’t see the constant use of the Clapperboard and stop-start editing of films - the reality gaps between the contrived and the unreal).
Sociologist’s have debated ferociously that general standards in educational examination certificates have been deliberately lowered in comparison to previous years in order that we can disguise and assuage reduced educational standards that, for example, in the UK have seen the loss of basic English language and arithmetical ability and prowess. (Recent statistics from research have shown that almost half of the adult population of the UK, and similar in USA, France and Switzerland struggle with these basics). In Japan, such are the pressures and expectations of passing basic examinations that declare an intelligence, the tradition of Hari-Kiri to replace failure is on the rising spiral, such a resort to suicide even sweeping into the UK.
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Immature Spokesperson
The mind and brain is being led along a false path of superiority. Can we all, realistically, have ‘qualified’ psychologists at the tender age of 21 when twenty one years of actual living has provided so little and few experiences of the Real World ? Can such representatives speak beyond the maturity and participation of those twice their age and above ? Could such a youngster in the space of half an hour tell a perfect stranger of fifty years where they have gone ‘wrong’ in their life? It has been a great mistake to assume the title of ‘men’ and ‘women’ to those at the tender age of 18 (teenagers!). The harsh lessons of life in the Real World have hardly begun.
People are running before they can walk, and running into all forms of trouble. The young autistic writer Donna Williams is but such a youngster with many, many years of experience yet to encounter. With this in mind, it saddens us somewhat to see such a youthful energy appear to be rushing to give out all the wrong signals in declaring that she will ‘conquer’ her autism. An autist giving their autism bad press will delight those who would rather autism be contained, in order to make a lucrative career or business out of it. Donna Williams shares one thing with non-autistic youngsters - they have a lot to learn at their vulnerable age, and may change their opinions when older.
Is it too grand an assumption to say that we all thought we knew it all when we were so young ? Would we listen to our elders’ advice ? The fifty-three year old wisdom of the autistic writer Temple Grandin is more of that we would come to expect of maturity; “If the genes that caused these conditions (autism) were eliminated, there might be a terrible price to pay. It is possible that persons with bits of these traits are more creative, or possibly even geniuses…”
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