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Monday, March 4, 2013

A perfect world

Have you ever known someone who sparked the thought, if that guy knew someone just like himself, he'd hate him? Have you ever wished that that person would have to meet his spiritual doppelganger?

A truly just world would be one in which different personality types could only associate with others like themselves. All sociopaths would have to live in a community composed exclusively of sociopaths. All of these con men would find it near impossible to con or even manipulate each other, since they would all be onto each other's tricks. And that would be exactly what they deserve.

For all those affect hungry sociopaths who feed off others' affections (while offering only the ersatz variety themselves), they would get only the hollow claims of affection from others. And sociopaths -- those famously disloyal and hateful creatures -- would get only disloyalty and hate from everyone they came into contact with. Which is exactly what they deserve.

That would be justice.

Garden variety narcissists would have to live on an island populated only with other narcissists. None of them would ever admit they were wrong, and all of them would only want to talk about themselves. But nobody else would ever admit fault, either, and nobody would want to listen to them talk. Everybody would demand his own way, and nobody would acquiesce willingly.

Justice.

People with Aspergers could live in a community with other Aspies. Each would rigidly demand his own way, deny to each other what they had just said, put words in each other's mouths, and only talk at, not with, each other. And they would all have to suffer through each other's melt downs.

Justice.

And so on, for every personality type. This would be a world where everyone got exactly whom they deserved for company.

Frankly, I wouldn't even mind a world where people were segregated by IQ. (This would be similar to, but far more effective than, our current college system.) Smart people wouldn't have to put up with dumb people, and dumb people wouldn't have to be looked down upon. And everybody would be able to relate to each other much better.

And if, say by accident, someone were to nuke the Island of the Sociopaths, well, I wouldn't shed a tear.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about all Democrats would have to live just with Democrats and Republicans just with Republicans?

John Craig said...

Anon --
Great idea. That'd be fine with me.

Flower_Child said...

Please move to South Africa and run for president!!

John Craig said...

Flower Child --
Thank you very much, but the only political position I would settle for is President of the World.

pete said...

We already have communities composed of sociopaths. They're called prisons.

John Craig said...

Pete --
I've read in the past that roughly 25% of inmates are sociopaths. That's a lot higher than the population at large (which has roughly 3-4% sociopaths) but it still leaves 75% of the inmates as non-sociopaths. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual number was higher than 25%, but it's still not the perfect segregation I'd like to see.

Anonymous said...

Hey John, I hope you're well. I'm turning to you because I don't know where else to turn. Are there any resources to help people who have to deal with Aspies and Borderlines on a regular basis? The website 'Heartless Aspergers' sadly got taken down. Every time I try Googling, there's all this sympathetic stuff about how much the Aspie/Borderline is suffering, but little on the havoc they wreak on others. I'm looking for a book or website to help, if you can recommend anything?
- Gethin

John Craig said...

Gethin --
Honestly, I know of no resources to help those who have to deal with either Aspies or Borderlines regularly. I too have seen much print devoted to helping Aspies and talking about how hard it is for them to live in a neurotypical world. (Though I've never seen articles devoted to sympathising with borderlines, I wouldn't doubt that there are some.) And the only articles I've seen about living with Aspies tend to be along the lines of, how to help them. While I agree that it's hard to deal with Aspies, anreven harder to live with them due to their rigidity and so on, I've never felt that they were bad people (with a few exceptions, like Adam Lanza). Borderlines, on the other hand, are rightly classified as one of the Cluster B (character) disorders. The only person I know who's married to a Borderline basically has Stockholm Syndrome at this point. He's gotten so used to constantly mollifying and assuaging her that he seems to think it's normal at this point, and he pretty much goes along with her plans to try to cozy up to his childless rich relatives in an effort to get into their wills, mostly because he wants to stave off her temper tantrums. And it's a pity, because that's the exact opposite of anything he would have done before he was married to her. Anyway, sorry, I know of no resources of the kind you're looking for. Which isn't to say they're not out there.