Neurodiversity and social change
your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful
The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]
Julia Bascom on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • via Steve Silberman on Twi...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 03/28/11 | No Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • via Steve Silberman on Twi...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 03/21/11 | No Comments | Read More
It turns out that last Friday's post on Dan Haggard's in-depth movie review The Social Network, the End of Intimacy, and the Birth of Hacker Sensibility went up one day shy of a year since I wrote abo...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 03/18/11 | 3 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • via Steve Silberman on Twi...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 03/14/11 | 1 Comment | Read More
Friendship, Intimacy, the Autistic Cohort, and The Social Network
There is a stemwinder of a review of Aaron Sorkin's film The Social Network that surfaced this week at Hacker News, one which manages to weave in many of the themes treated here at Shift by various co...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 03/11/11 | 4 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • via Steve Silberman on Twi...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 03/7/11 | No Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week (plenty)
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • via Steve Silberman on Twi...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/28/11 | No Comments | Read More
The Ghosts That Haunt the Human Mind
It is, I think, a pretty standard practice among those who take the social model of disability seriously to evaluate observations about autism against the background of our own “real” experience w...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/25/11 | 2 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • From Time Magazine's Healt...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/21/11 | 1 Comment | Read More
It is with some relief that I remind myself it is not my job to convince others that I am right. If I've not changed any minds though, this past couple weeks on the site have been rewarding in othe...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/18/11 | 9 Comments | Read More
New Thread (If Not Us, Then Who?)
[continued from previous] I've said that I see a lot of thoughtful attention here; I'd like to also say that everyone (hi Diane, welcome; thanks for coming by) seems to be making sound arguments, o...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/15/11 | 6 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • via Steve Silberman's Twit...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/14/11 | No Comments | Read More
Lots of nutritious back and forth in comments this week, with Rachel and Stephanie each taking exception to my post last Friday. Before diving back in to the fray, I'd like to lay out one context in...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/11/11 | 10 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal's archives. • • • • • • • • Tyler Cowen • ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/7/11 | No Comments | Read More
I'm usually content to allow Gwen McKay's light touch and considerable gift for understatement work their magic on their own but her most recent post titled Fault Lines touched a nerve for me, and I w...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/4/11 | 15 Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2010 • Emergence of a Universal Language ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/31/11 | No Comments | Read More
What’s So Funny About Wikileaks and Autism?
Caitlin Wray's essay Be the Change: How to Shift Autism into the Mainstream appeared in this space last August, opening with her declaration that “I have a neighbour who can’t say 'autism.'” We ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/28/11 | 4 Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2010 • Ghost Dance Sometimes I feel lik...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/24/11 | No Comments | Read More
The Autistic Cohort as a Distributed System
A few weeks ago I proposed that what the autistic cohort and the Wikileaks file-sharing drama had in common was that opposition to both came from centralized systems of power which in turn mistake aut...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/21/11 | 2 Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2010 • Estrogen, Puberty and Autism In...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/17/11 | No Comments | Read More
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?
Just a few quick thoughts while I continue to piece together future posts. In comments to Sarah Schneider's piece republished here last week (Allen Frances gave us the Asperger’s “epidemic” �...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/14/11 | 3 Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2010 • The Tao of the Alarm Clock I might ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/10/11 | No Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2010 • Neurodiversity, Primary Process and...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/3/11 | No Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2009/2010 • The Path Home By now I had st...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 12/27/10 | No Comments | Read More
Did the Autistic Cohort Beget Wikileaks?
It's been said that analogy is the weakest form of logic, to which I've always wanted to reply, “And Hallelujah for it.” If analogy is the red-headed stepchild of logicians it finds its true kin...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 12/24/10 | 14 Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2009 • Geeks and Nerds: Autism’s Proxy Wa...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 12/20/10 | No Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2009 • Neuropsychology and Autism Heteroch...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 12/13/10 | No Comments | Read More
Which War Are We In: Good vs. Evil, or The One vs. The Many?
Gwen McKay with what has become trademark optimism remarked in a comment the other day that “Right now I’d say that we are going through a long-term process of discarding our collective identity a...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 12/10/10 | 13 Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2009 • Ruminations There are two major cu...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 12/6/10 | No Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • • 2009 • Predictions Writing these daily en...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 11/29/10 | No Comments | Read More
Autism has been here all along.
Considered as an evolutionary condition with far-reaching social implications, its full presence and impact remain hidden in plain sight, unrecognized and uncredited.
Part neurological mystery, part social construct, and part secret society unbeknownst even to its own members, autism does not lend itself to explanation by those who hold it apart from society, from themselves, or from consciousness itself. Definitions are revised, overhauled, and abandoned all while efforts to explore and examine this condition on its own terms are only now gaining momentum.
Shift Journal aims to showcase and encourage such efforts. Entertaining the notion of autistic as a legitimate way to be in the world, from the crossroads of theory, society, and personal experience, Shift welcomes relevant contributions from all comers.
Mark Stairwalt
Editor and Publisher
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Shift Journal founder Andrew Lehman's groundbreaking cross-disciplinary work Evolution, Autism, and Social Change draws from evolutionary biology, neuro-psychology and related fields to outline an evolutionary process complementary to natural selection that may explain some forms of autism as well as -- and perhaps more importantly -- long-term shifts in large-scale social structure. Download or purchase Evolution, Autism, and Social Change here.
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In a world which relentlessly demands practical advice for day-to-day, Shift Journal remains focused on promoting reflection and discovery. Readers however who are seeking useful information and how-to guidance assembled by a down-to-earth, conscientious and scientifically literate crew who once sought such information themselves and found it difficult to come by may find The Thinking Person's Guide to Autism to be just what they are looking for:
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New or established writers wishing to contribute original or previously published posts may use the submissions page or contact us directly.
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Autism and Empathy Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism Neurodivergent Sexuality Just Stimming Autistic Passing Project