Beyond the Box

“Now that’s thinking outside the box.” – He said.

“I don’t just think outside the box, I was born outside the box!” – Part of a conversation I had with a sales manager a couple of years ago. 

Many a time I come across that worldly and over-used expression, “thinking outside the box” which is something quite an akin condition of the mind of an Aspie as well as those who think in inventive terms, the original thinker per se. When growing up and remaining undiagnosed for some 35 years with that typical feeling of being somewhat outcast or alien toward those who surrounded me my inventiveness and original thinking remained throughout as it does today.

However, I often considered that many who utilise the sentence, “he/she/it thinks outside the box” do so without any form of actual analysis toward the environment of mind that actually is, outside the box. When we consider ‘environment’ one is often subjected to pictures or thoughts’ processes of the physicality as opposed to the more applicable consideration toward an eternal vastness of thought and thought origin, the investigation original thinking originates from.

For me, thinking outside the box is essentially a thought construct seeding liberty. Liberty to me is to locate an independent path or paths outside of common societal mindsets indigenous to ones’ own perspective of freedom whilst remaining comparable to other’s self created entrapments and knowing with evidence that you are not like them. Freedom from internal boxed constraints or more often polluting factors such as, societal mindsets engineered by the vacuous existence that is herd mentality, oh yes, the herd mentalist, the plodding sentient humanoid so easily led by media, bought by politicians and subjected to by corporations (because the product must be bought, right?). It’s little wonder that original thinkers are reviled by the schoolyard bullies, feared by employers and ignored by politicians. Makes one wonder as to why this is? Doesn’t it? Or can you?

Always lead by example is what I lend toward being the best methodology of teaching, I wish to quash societal mindsets as these to me these are prison bars of fertility of the soil that exists in the great expanse beyond the box.  

Trial By Media

The face-palm inducing arguments I have had with persons who obtain their evidence from the suggestion of the newspaper / “news” broadcast astounds me to the intensity of their beliefs born of nothing more than sensualist type and literal band wagon magnetism.

For instance, say I come across a friend who introduces me to their son and I greet them by...

“Hey rockstar!!” Excitedly and ruffle his hair then a high five. Seems innocent enough,

Now the, err, “news” version.

“Whilst roaring at him calling him names, VisionGhost accosted a child and placed his hand upon the child’s person.”

Because of course, that’s what happened right? I have observed many who would read the latter and immediately have a drop down menu to conjure up all sorts of ideas yet only pertaining to one, that I am violent toward children as so many always choose the most extreme of all the options when in fact there exists only the one, the one the “news” wants you to believe.

I see it happened when say, a male celebrity is reported in the “news” by the story stating,

“Police were summoned to a call of a domestic disturbance by male celebrity’s wife!”

Immediately - male celebrity is a wife beating scumbag, he’s the enemy, online abuse ensues, facebook groups setup, calls for male celebrity’s instant removal from all sponsorship and so and so on and so on, turns out it was the wife who called because she was locked out and male celebrity who was watching a horror movie has the TV turned up too loud and didn’t even know she was there who her husband was being attacked.

Marriage

Here in Ireland we are facing a referendum, and the question is, should the electorate allow same sex couples to marry? Vote Yes or No.

I got asked, which way am I going to vote and my reply was simple, I’m abstaining from voting.

Why? Because I simply cannot apply enforcement of a notion one way or the other toward something in which I have absolutely no belief in, none whatsoever. Marriage to me is an utter farce; some maybe offended by that but let’s examine why I think this way.

Remember I mentioned liberty? Well here’s a thing, I believe in seeking liberty and freedom of the one in as much a capacity as humanly and socially as well as legally available, which you have to admit is becoming increasingly harder and harder to locate in this modern era; there exists approximately 7.01 billion humans on Earth, so if I was for pure argument sakes assume that an exact 50% split of them are female (I am heterosexual) is available for a potential relationship, obviously excluding those who are lesbian, not of legal age, not attracted to me or vice versa, other mitigating circumstances, so on and so forth, I could very well have foundered the potential for human coupling with millions and millions of females.

Now, going further, I believe in consensual non-monogamy, which in short means, allowing consent for your significant other to engage in sexual relationship with other people, be it regular contact or simply one night stands, etc.  Why? because we as a species are actually designed this way, males are meant to (spread the wild oats) inseminate as many females as possible, so, being that we have become the most advanced sexualised species on Earth this opens up a much wider playing field for, you guessed it? The ultimate freeform of human pleasure, yes sex, the greatest method to burn calories, enhance your immune system, create closeness and relieve stress, relieve depression, enhance confidence, oh the list of benefits goes on and on.

Furthermore, divorce, the most expensive outlay of any couple’s union is foundered in its collapse (which you must admit is somewhat ironic), keeping divorce lawyers rich and the courts with something to do not to mention the incredible emotional hardship, stress, maintenance payments, who gets the kids, who gets the house, blah. blah, blah.

Look, it is not my intention to doom all marriages to hell but quite frankly, when I examine the bigger picture I think with all the above considered, I shall remain as I am, a single man in a loving long term relationship who is free as is my partner to consent to the practice of mating without insemination for the sheer pleasure of it as we are designed to do without the contract.

The deeper reason I think this way is because, no one, repeat, no one to me is an object. Just because I used the word “relationship” does that somehow mean there is this invisible contract of ownership that somehow I can control what one does with her body of her own free will. It’s none of my damn business quite frankly. Yes I admit, having a sexual relationship with another outside his/her partnership born out of deception is indeed cheating, having consented sex with another which is in turn consented to happened by all parties is the jackpot.

Euthanasia 

This blog is becoming a bit longer than I had intended so I shall end on this last subject.

I was laying awake in bed a few weeks back unable to sleep and full of thoughts (yes you can imagine I do that quite a lot) when the idea of human assisted suicide entered into my mind and after much consideration a very clear and present observation of a stupidity occurred to me.

Personally I would support euthanasia in certain circumstances, in relation to quality of life being ultimately diminished to near nothingness as well as an incurable & terminal condition causing prolonged suffering until the inevitable end.

But what never ceases to bemuse me is how the courts, medical practice and those who oppose euthanasia are seemingly blind to the occurring knock on affect of their decision.

So patient A is dying, their condition is incurable they awake to a horrible daily cycle of suffering, horrific indignance and of course, an unbearable amount of pain despite the morphine drip. Currently we would allow these poor souls to go on meaninglessly suffering day after day, watch them waste away and eventually mortality thus takes them.

So here’s the thought, in that time, a country’s health system has spent perhaps, thousands and thousands on their “treatment” to prolong this pointless escapade when simultaneously Patient B has occurred a condition in which a cure has been found and a therapy is workable to either treat or rid completely and return Patient B to pain free normality but is turned away to die and why? Because the treatment sought is too expensive; now I don’t about you, but that picture is an embellishment of insanity.

Summarising, keep terminally ill patients alive until inevitable death at the cost of millions yet turn away curable patients because their treatment is too expensive. Please tell me I am not the only one that can see what is most seriously wrong with that picture?

Pharmaceutical industries as they say, don’t create cures, they create customers, makes one wonder.

Thank you for reading.

VisionGhost

Herd Mentality Autonomous Denialism

This is one of those times when the realist comes out of me, I am an Aspie, let’s face it, I am an “Alien to the Ignorant” <-- we’ll come back to that later. 

I want to offer a perspective within perspectives in the following scenarios to address how easy society is to be intrinsically enveloped into habitual behaviours that even the persons within said society can’t answer as to why they behave in this manner which creates a huge barrier to acceptance, originality or perspective.

So, here are three scenarios of which within only two words will reverse the entire outlook of the moment...

Scenario 1

Think of your best friend, male or female, they’re going to be accosted, attacked, kidnapped and subject to unbelievable physical torture, experimentation and then they are going to be sexually interfered with and possibly raped. To that end they will be subject to drug abuse to paralyse and cause psychedelic confusion if not complete memory loss. Your friend calls you in total distress, they are having nightmares, flash backs and have scars they can’t explain; but you just laughed at them, I mean come on, isn’t this just utterly hilarious, their pain, their torture, their suffering is so profoundly funny because this is a scenario of, (two words), alien abduction – suddenly kidnap, torture and rape is funny!

Scenario 2

Their child is on life support and on the brink of death, this virus is invasive and caused a horrific rash and multiple organ failures throughout the body as doctors take his/her temperature, open up manuals and try in utter desperation as the virus pervades into the spinal column and eventually the brain causing almost certain death if not irreversible brain damage from the measles pathogen that has overcome his/her tiny body but hey, the parents are so relieved, so absolute in their decisions to let their little one go through this as god forbid, autism could have been the risk, as after all they were (two words) anti-vaxxers!

Scenario 3

“Phew!” Thought the equal opportunities employer, he cracks his/her knuckles and leans back in his/her leather executive office chair, the last candidate is long since gone and by word he/she would have been perfect for the job, dedicated, loyal, well researched and qualified, several years experience and with the outside of the box thinking the company was looking for; I mean come one, the boss could never have employed such a person, never in a million years, come on, they admitted to having, (two words) Asperger Syndrome!

Now whether or not one’s eyes are rolling at the sincere inference of the above being some left wing lecture in equality and acceptance remains a debate only you can solve, but the point to all the above is simply this...

That Neurotypical herd mentality has a unique self defeating contradictory behavioural trait, where within you champion the one who says “fuck the establishment” you congratulate the one who speaks of uniqueness, you hold in mental high regard the one who speaks of equality and you worship the idealism the thought of individualism...

But yet, god forbid I, as an Aspie, be the individual you claim to adore because the raw truth remains, that you are terrified of the very thing you pretend to respect the most.  

The moment you are presented with the absolute exterior perspective, behaviour or conditioning outside of what you understand then immediate ridicule, bullying and destruction ensues in whatever format that may be fathomed. 

Is it little wonder so many Autistics and Aspergians are bullied at school, fail at job interviews and seldom make close friends? Before one can embrace equality one must rid themselves of all interior perspectives to a complete inner absolution of neutrality, only then can you truly practice what you preach and only then can the thinker external of the box be seen for the qualities that they possess.

We the Autistics and Aspergians are not the failure, you are, via your Neurotypical herd mentality autonomous denialism!

Only in recent days, a group of football hooligans rejected a black man from entering the train and started singing,

“We’re racist, we’re racist and that’s the way we like it!”

Now, I watched that video on Sky News (yes I am well aware of the inaccuracy for the validity of news stories from Sky News) the train load of yobs were singing along and when I saw their faces the grey matter most certainly was not active as they barrr, barrrr, barrrr, like a bunch of sheep in a pen where they belong; BUT don’t forget the back guy – he was noticed when on camera he became a victim of injustice, prejudice and racism.

We, the Aspies, are invisible from your perspectives, so the next time someone seems to speak clichés as if they are true, the one who talks with an external perspective, the one who seems to have the answers correct but spoken in a manner  that is not instantly cordial to the common normality well, you may just have an Aspie on your hands, which means with just a little understand could be the best implementation to your company, cause or function.

Now tell me, do you truly worship individuality? Stop fearing the individual and embrace what you preach!

Now, I mentioned “Alien to the Ignorant” <--- Back at the top!!

It was a title to a poem my partner of some five and a half years post date of this blog has been with me, it hasn’t been easy, there’s been plenty of ups and downs but no divorce, but Denise “Little Pixie” Ryan, an award winning poet wrote a poem especially for me and it is as follows...

Alien to the Ignorant

You are the furthest star

opulent in the universe -

no spaceship could ever

possibly reach,

but I succeeded in the journey

because

I believe in what you teach.

Love, soaked in purity,

integrity in your persuasion

require not physics or

mathematical equations.

A galaxy on earth, such

human endeavour

emotionally formed, poetically

clever.

Neither space nor time, just

this moment forever.

My cosmic soul – an

astronomers treasure.

By Denise Ryan

If Denise can get it right, what the hell is your excuse?

Thank you for reading.

VisionGhost

Freedom of Expression or Kicking the Hornet’s Nest?

Unless of course one has been living in a medically induced coma, we all know the events that transpired in Paris most recently in the last few weeks. The world reacted accordingly with cries of condemnation with 1.7 million people marching in solidarity alongside the French and quite rightly so!

Since then there has been the inevitable yawn laden speeches by numerous world leaders, terrorist experts, media reps and varying other archetypes lending their opinions and two cents to the debacle unfolding before us.

Throughout these moments I began to speculate as to what exactly this is really in aid of; firstly of course I must stress that I too do not condone violence in any form unless of course it is in the parameters of legitimate self defence; however, whilst it may also be note worthy to point out, there was no necessary cause to attack civilians over what was simply a joke, or more specifically a cartoon, but, whilst it is one thing to say one does not condone violence, it is quite another to blame the behaviour of hornets when they sting you, for you having kicked their nest, knowing full well how they will react in the first place.

What do I mean by that? Well, it’s pretty simple, what we are observing here is the West kicking the hornet’s nest of the East and then the West blaming the hornets of the East for retaliating and stinging the West.  Terrorism and Islamic extremism is heralded by persons that are quite frankly a different form of human wildlife; BUT a form of human wildlife that through varying methods of criminal activities are utterly loaded with endless monetary funds, have access to lethal weaponry and are able to educate themselves with the required expertise to utilise said weapons in broad daylight with military precision, in this case, with the armaments of two machine guns, an RPG launcher, knives and pistols. Hmm, yay international security!

These people can also radicalise our teenage sons and daughters via a well known social media platform called Twitter, so much so, that they end up jumping on flights to the Middle East and next thing the parents know is that their now radicalised sons & daughters are on TV chanting “Death to the West” and/or “Allahu Akbar” (means Allah is awesome - in case you were wondering!).

They also rose up, unexpectedly so, in Iraq and Afghanistan, now called IS (Islamic State) which is pretty much Al Qaeda version 2 and have cemented themselves as one of the most feared terrorist organisations ever to come out of the Middle East since the Hezbollah.

And to top it off, these new forms of human wildlife love nothing more than to kick off about something and do so in the form of murderous activities; be that of detonating bombs, murdering civilians or beheading soldiers in the street (Lee Rigby).

So cometh to the question, are these the forms of human wildlife that we really want to be antagonising, especially when we all know full well what form that reaction to said antagonism will be delivered? In the name of Freedom of Expression apparently, the answer; is YES!

Now, before you leap up on an accusatory soap box and defile me with the charge of being a terrorist sympathiser (by the way I am not) let me tell you a story to which you will hopefully see how silly you are...

One day a snake climbed up a tree and got hopelessly stuck, soon after a human comes walking by and notices the snake,

“Help me down I am stuck.” Said the snake.

“Not a chance,” replied the human, “I know what you’ll do, you’ll bite me and I will die.”

The snake pondered this for a moment and said,

“I solemnly swear I will not bite you, please help down from this tree.”

The human still not convinced repeated the concern, to that again the snake countered by making the same promise, some time passes and eventually the human gives in and helps the snake down.

But not two feet from the ground the snake whips around lunging at the human, taking aim and landing an agonising bite injecting its poison; in the human’s dying breaths,

“I helped you; you promised you wouldn’t bite me.”

To which the snake replied...

“You knew what I was well before you decided to help me!”

To that, the snake slithered away and the human slowly died.

The moral of the story in this modern era is this, we are the ones kicking the hornet’s nest and giving rise to the snake to behave as it does then point accusatory fingers back at the aggressor, quite rightly so as their actions are abhorrent, but, we have to ask ourselves, how many more innocent lives have to be lost? NOT just because we believe in a different faith, but because we on this occasion deliberately antagonised the aggressor. That is the truth and it cannot be avoided.

It can be argued that these Terrorists would kill for any cause, yes that is true, but why should we risk more lives by handing them even more reasons?

It is not my aim to appear to be leaping up on the high horse of morality to win an argument but I personally count myself lucky to live in a society where I can blaspheme, insult my country’s premier or call a religious salesperson an asshole for aggravating my hangover on a Sunday morning, but if I come rolling out from the happy nightclub of life, drunk and high on the liberty but see a guy clearly angry and swearing at the world the last thing I would do is wind him up to the extent he/she enacts violence against me because in all realistic acknowledgements, I started it!

Yes indeed the terrorist actions in Paris were wholly out of proportion, I don’t need the brains of an archbishop to work that one out, but, we know what terrorists do, we know what they think, how they think it and how they act out those thoughts; for me the answer is quiet clear, kick the hornet’s nest, get stung, end of discussion.

Thank you for reading.