'Belief in opinion' is the most destructive issue in society

I believe that the most destructive societal issue of the last 10 years is that opinion matters more than fact. We only have to look at Trump and his band of frothy-mouthed cult members to understand this.

This 'belief in opinion' has had dire consequences in our society. Climate change? Nah. A radical left-wing manufactured hoax. Covid-19? Nah. A Chinese hoax. Politics is important? Nah. Just elect a reality-show con-man.

Part of it is that it is hard to discern the actual facts from all the misinformation out there, and part of it is that understanding real data and real research is much harder than just believing some crazy facebook story. We are living in the age of instant gratification and this is at odds with spending the necessary time to really understand a particular issue.

And not only is it society in general that this happens but the academic world also is guilty.

You only have to look at the linked article to see how today's emphasis on subjective opinions outweighs true scientific research. Here is a paper which provided a sound peer-reviewed hypothesis on why males in nature show more variance than females in many areas ranging from birth-weight to math scores, and it was ultimately not only rejected but made to disappear.

It is an interesting read of the danger of how even the academic world now views and acts on research of controversial subject matter.

https://quillette.com/2018/09/07/academic-activists-send-a-published-paper-down-the-memory-hole/

There is no honour in war

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/nov/13/australia-is-in-for-a-shock-as-war-crimes-investigation-brings-reality-of-war-to-the-anzac-myth

Well, this report is going to be nasty if they are giving us warning. I can only imagine the horrific events that will be made public.

This is all done to placate the public opinion into believing that there is honour in warfare. There is no honour in warfare. So to mask the true nature of warfare they have created rules of engagement such as: not killing enemy soldiers that have surrendered, banning certain armaments such as chemical gases, etc. All this to keep the public believing that human beings are not monsters; to 'force' parents to hand their sons over to State, to perpetuate the utterly surreal idea that there are ethics and morality behind these state-sanctioned killings.

One only has to visit the War Museum in Canberra to understand that these poor bastards did not experience honour, or ethics, or morality. They experienced hell on Earth. What ethics and morality is there cowering in a trench waiting for your turn as the artillery rains down around you.

So, for centuries, the military and political leaders have tread a fine line between the horror of sending our young men into harm's way, and the brutality of war. And they do this by creating rules of engagement to placate and soothe the masses.

The creation of rules of engagement during state-sanctioned killings and then prosecuting those soldiers who happen to violate these made-up rules is mind-numbing hypocrisy to me. They throw these young men into killing zones and then prosecute them when that arbitrary line of mercy vs merciless that been crossed. And they do this to sacrifice these men in order to numb the public into believing that war has honour. Tell me. Where is that line between mercy and mercilessness? What is the difference between napalm (legal) lighting everyone on fire, and mustard gas (illegal) causing blindness?

So they sacrifice these men to both the death/destruction of war and then to the fickleness of public opinion. Like the American Vietnam soldiers who survived the hell of that war (many who were horribly injured), and then these young people, damaged beyond any hope, coming home to the public calling them 'baby-killers'.

The hypocrisy is disgusting. War is a failure of honour. A failure of ethics and morality. A failure of reason. A failure of trust. And above all, a failure of leadership.

The criminals are the leaders who decide to send our young men to Afghanistan. Why? Because the Taliban are bad people? Do we kill all the bad people then? The criminals are the leaders who decided to send our young men to Vietnam. Why? Because they may govern their people by a different set of rules? Do we kill all the people who govern by a different system?

But no, the government goes after the soldiers.

And the public should not take it any more. There is no honour in warfare, only misery and death. We can dress it all up, have all our Remembrance and ANZAC Day ceremonies, military bands playing the national anthem at footy games, air force flybys, and now a report on soldier misconduct, but we should know what it really is. It is to numb us to the horrors of war. It is done so that parents will hand over their sons and daughters to the State to kill or be killed; damaging them forever. It is done so we don't see the politicians as what they truly are: failures.

The end to the human species

The experiment linked below of 60 years ago unfortunately shows the fate of the human species. It is, as Shakespeare would write, a fatal flaw of the mammalian family.

It is all about the Tragedy of the Commons which I wrote about some time ago, where the allocation of shared resources becomes corrupted by the self interest of those who rely on that resource. I urge you to read-up on the Tragedy of the Commons.

Insects such as ants do not have this issue. Ants will willing sacrifice themselves to form bridges across water so that the majority can use their bodies to walk to safety. There is no individualism with ants. However mammals are not like this; we have self-preservation as a primary goal. And this is our undoing. When populations are low or resources are plentiful, self-interest does not cause a problem, but as populations grow (as the rats in the experiments did) then resources, which could be adequate if managed properly, become depleted by self-interest.

And the experiment shows that if finite resources are depleted then the entire colony dies. One would think the colony would shrink to the point where the resources would, once again, be adequate for that population. But that is not the case. Once the fight for resources takes place, there is no turning back. The colony dies. They did the experiments 25 times with very different situations and it all came back to the same ending. The colony dies.

Experiment

Autism does/doesn't define me

I did a google search on "autism does define me". And I was very surprised to see about half the articles stated that autism does define them and other half not. So forget the Internet in answering that question: you must answer that for yourselves.

So do I believe autism defines oneself?

I think about the person that defines themselves as shy. They may say "I'm a shy person". But they have only put a label on themselves, and notice the times they are shy because of the mental model they have created for themselves. But they don't think of or they discount the times they are not shy. You ask them "Are there times you are not shy?". And they will have to think and they will probably grin and say "Yes". So, they have destructively painted themselves with a 'shy' brush. Creating a mental model of yourself is far different than a genetic set of characteristics. (Now I'm not saying that there are not truly shy people, but these people are most likely overly shy because of some genetic reason and not because of any mental model they have formed).

I asked my autistic son if he feels his autism defines him and he answered that he doesn't know life any other way. Which is correct but it's also correct for anyone since we all have different traits.

So the question really is: does your genetic makeup define you? And, again, the answer is grey. Certainly, who you are is DNA-deep. But you may have red hair. Does having red hair define you? You may have a physical deformity. Does that deformity define you?

Thus, the answer must come down to how you define the word 'define'. And, sorry but once again, the answer is grey and personal. Having red hair is very different than having, for example, a birth defect of a cleft lip, or a very noticeable birthmark on your face. A person with red hair may say that this colour doesn't define them but a person with a cleft lip would say absolutely.

I think that a person will say whether a genetic characteristic defines them or not based on how this characteristic affects their integration into the mainstream world. Red hair has little effect, a cleft lip has much more. For example, ask someone with a cleft lip stuck on a desert island all their life whether their lip defines them would say of course not. Would an autistic person stranded on a desert island say their autism defines them?

I have written 7 paragraphs and said nothing. Sigh.

So to finally answer my own question: My grey opinion is that autism does define oneself. It is present in every action they do. It is a part of how they see their world whether they are integrating themselves in the mainstream world or on their own.

And I read this article (which started this whole thought process) and I feel that even though she was writing it with the best intentions, I feel it badly misses the mark. Others may have a different view.

dont-let-autism-be-only-thing-defines-you

Her overall premise is that you somehow must overcome your autistic worldview in order to succeed in the neurotypical world. And this has the affect of subtlety reinforcing a view that the autistic are somehow tainted or not 'right' or incomplete. She writes:

I tell them that they have to believe in themselves. They have to believe they CAN

And I ask myself: What happens if they don't know how to? What happens if they have never tried or failed each time they have? How does a 'belief' come about when there may be nothing to support that belief. And what does 'believing in themselves' mean?

To me it's so blue-sky and hand-wavy to say these things. The devil is in the details.

She comes at the article from the position of being a very high-functioning autistic. It would be like asking Steve Jobs what should the autistic should do. He would probably write exactly what she has written because his personality and autism worked perfectly in unison. His combination was the ideal outcome of autism.

You will have to run a marathon daily to keep up in a neurotypical world. You will have to work harder than your co-workers. You will have to be willing to ask for help. You have to be aware of your needs and you have to be patient with yourself. You have to go that extra mile.

This is the message I dislike the most. It is telling the autistic that not only must they try to think/behave like the neurotypicals but you must strive to be better than them. In fact, this statement is very dangerous. It completely invalidates their autistic world. It is saying that the autistic world is not a valid world and the goal is the neurotypical world. It is the exact opposite of when she said believe in yourself. I think of the stress that these types of messages put on the autistic children and then she writes:

I look for those kids who doubt their future. I see the fear in their eyes and the wonder if they will ever make it independently.

Well, of course they do. You are giving them a monumental task. Be better than the neurotypicals at being neurotypical.

She is forgetting that the devil is in the details. It's the details that determines your path in life. You can have all the hand-wavy quotes but, at the end of the day, it's knowing that actions are the only thing that can make you believe in yourself.

And I have a different message. I believe the autistic person should use their autism as a springboard into the neurotypical world. Be yourself within any world. Be yourself first.

Turning the autistic's special interest into something more

We all know that the autistic have special interests, and some of the autistic are quite remarkable in regards to this interest; they may have an innate talent, they may have unrelenting drive and passion, they may have an insight that others just don't have. 

The key then is to find a way to turn that into something that creates an opportunity outside themselves. Start to find out if others have this same interest. If so, start asking yourself some questions. If others are interested, how can I help these others in this interest? What can I provide that will help these others? Be the person that creates services which surround this interest. Find ways to promote and grow this interest with the others that have the similar interest. If others have no interest, what things can I do that may pique the interest in others? In other words, how can I create a following? Then the key becomes being the one that creates this following, and this may become valuable.

Think of ways to promote this interest in both the others with similar interests or to bring others into your interest. Test the waters. Be innovative. Try things, fail, regroup, think some more, succeed. But everything they do remains within that interest.

Suppose your interest is birds. Well, websites are incredibly easy and cheap to setup these days. Create a website at www.worldofbirds.net. Start a blog. Create a reddit subgroup: worldofbirds. Create a youtube channel. Etc. There are hundreds of avenues to check out.

Now the autistic person may not quite understand how to do this or even the potential of this. And that's fine so we need to help them in the initial stages. Help them to find these other people, test things out, and/or help determine if any potential opportunities exist. But once the autistic start to see their interest grow, this service to others may start to become part of their interest. Yes, they still love their interest but they also love the feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves.

Australian data on Autism - 2018

Based on this study below, in 2018 there were 205,200 Australians with autism, a 25.1% increase from the 164,000 in 2015. This is roughly 7% per year increase compounded. Compare this against the overall population growth in AU being roughly 1.5% per year.

Now there is no way that the growth of autism is over 4 times the national growth rate. The only plausible answer is better detection of autism. What this means then is we really have no clue how many autistic there are in AU, nor what percentage of the population they represent. As the detection methods get better and better, watch the autism numbers increase considerably.

And they even admit it. Look at the prevalence graph in the study. Highest levels of autistic is the 10-14 year range and drops off considerably. That's because autism was vastly undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for the older ranges.

It also says that almost half of the autistic indicated they need more support and/or school support than they are receiving, which is very concerning.

This study has a lot of very interesting data (and mis-data as well).

https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/4430.0Main%20Features102018?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=4430.0&issue=2018

Why ActiveGoals?

ActiveGOALS

The Person

ActiveGOALS is about Progress. It allows anyone to track their goals, setup routines/tasks/notifications, journal your experiences.

Yes, at the end of the day, it's about progress. In fact, it's all about small continuous progress; lots of small constant little steps because all those little steps adds up to a journey. The life you ultimately have is the life that you choose. No sugar-coating about it. So lets get going. The goals await. And ActiveGOALS will push you. I created this platform because I deal a lot with the autistic community and I knew this platform can help them. But it can be used by anyone who wants to further themselves.

The only way a fear can dissolve is if your actions allow it to dissolve. You can have all the help in the world and that's great, but ultimately you are still the one that must go out and face your fears. I have built ActiveGOALS to help you do this.

ActiveGOALS has 2 main advantages:

• You can allow anyone else access to your details. You may want a parent or carer to be able to view your goals and your progress. You may want a mental health professional to access your details and make notes, suggestions, plans, etc to guide and assist you.
• Here's the big one. ActiveGOALS pushes you. It doesn't allow you to do nothing. You set a goal or a task? Fine. ActiveGOALS will make sure that tasks are done and progress is made. You miss doing a routine? ActiveGOALS will ask why you missed it. Get ready for lots of SMSs. You don't like this? No problem. Don't use ActiveGOALS.

ActiveGOALS is FREE-of-charge for anyone to use including parents/carers. (Mental Health professionals - please call me.)

"You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." - Christopher Robin to Winnie-the-Pooh.

The Parent

ActiveGOALS is about Working together.

At the end of the day, our job as parents is to produce fully-functioning adults. We want our kids, regardless of needs, to be able to function as independently as possible. We are not going to be around forever.

So we need to put practices in-place today which prepare our kids for independency. They need to strive for goals, and most importantly, have the responsibility and the authority to manage their own path. We need to act as guides rather than doing the work for them.

There was been a recent tendency to coddle our children, to prevent them from failing, to unnecessarily protect them. This doesn't help them. We all know that failure is a big part of gaining life lessons. We also know the value in terms of self-esteem, confidence, inner happiness when our kids strive for a goal themselves and make it happen. A child's constant pursuit and attainment of small goals will ultimately prepare them for the time when they must (or hope to) become masters of their own fate.

ActiveGOALS gives your kids the power to plan and implement their own path/plans, and you can monitor the progress of your children via this platform, and be the guide and overseer as we should be.

The Mental Health Professional

ActiveGOALS is about Communication.

Most mental health professionals provide wonderful services and care deeply about their patients. But as a parent myself of an autistic child who underwent therapy I questioned the value of a weekly 50 minute session. It seemed that my son had to reengage the relationship with the therapist each time. I completely understand the business side of a practice which one of the reasons why I developed ActiveGOALS.

The fact that ActiveGOALS gives the parents access to their child's progress means that both the child and the parents are on the same-page and both vested into ensuring the greatest chance of the success of this child. This coupled with firm support from a mental health professoinal will give the child every possible chance of success in taking control of their lives and health.

ActiveGOALS allows you to monitor the progress of the patient, add tasks/actions, add documents which you feel are worthwhile, add or update a plan, and/or respond quickly to any change in the patient's mental health.

Important!!!
ActiveGOALS also interacts with the IBM Watson AI services and can take text written by your patients (600 words or more), and analyse it to produce 55 personality traits. Use it as another tool for your diagnosis of a patient, or see any changes in your patients personalities over time.

Eric Handbury
M: 0417 116 425
E: activegoals.net@gmail.com
W: https://www.activegoals.net