What is Retarded?

This blog began with the title “When worlds collide” and was going to be simply a comment on the recently surfaced claim that Facebook, and other social networking sites could be causing autism… It is very rare that I see two of my “themes” so closely and overtly connected to one another.  But, as I got into the meat and potatoes of it, I noticed I was throwing the word “Retarded” around quite a bit… a word that causes a very negative reaction among the most politically correct of us… and implies a derogatory meaning.  I do use the word Retarded in a derogatory way… but never directed at individuals with cognitive processing problems… I use the word Retarded to describe the slowness of society, policy, in relation to the evolutionary processes our species have been undergoing for the past 100 years… It isn’t people who are Retarded… it’s society and the institution that is retarded…  With all those caveats put in place… this is what I have to say.

An Oxford educated expert has very boldly gone on record by making an intellectual connection between social networking and the wave of mental health issues plaguing society, and particularly autism.  “Perhaps given the brain is so impressionable, that screen life is mandating that more infantilized lifestyle. Now this is based on a little bit of neuroscience, observations, a bit of clinical evidence, there is no one single or conclusive killer fact,” said Professor Susan Greenfield in a House of Lords debate.

Perhaps indeed Professor Greenfield.

In essence she claims that all the fast, bright and shiny objects we play with online are making us a bit retarded…

Now on the heels of this story, a research study was released which indicated that the brains of kids with ADHD were perhaps developing slower than the “normal” brain… The period of childhood is, essentially, getting longer for the distracted mind.  More retarded people?!

Interesting indeed.

So we have two bits here, one suggesting neurological linkages between mental illness and a pervasive cultural phenomena, and one which may be suggesting a link between mental illness and the social phenomenon of “arrested adulthood”: the state of prolonged childhood.

While I like the notion that the Internet, and our use of it, is rewiring our brains… I don’t like the assumption that this is, in itself, is a “developmental problem” for the individual.  I think it is our society with the developmental problem.  Further, I like the notion of a neurological indicator for our defining of development… I don’t like the assumption that this is somehow detrimental for the individual living in the world today.

From my understanding, developmental norms are set by the large-scale patterns of behavioural and cognitive milestones observed within the majority.   When individuals take longer to hit those milestones they are labeled either “special” or “retarded” (depending on who you are talking to).

But what if… and entertain me a bit here… what if it was the characterization of developmental milestones that was a little bit retarded… That is, what if it wasn’t that these individuals weren’t slow in their development at all… what if the developmental milestones which have been guiding us along for the past century or so are no longer relevant for the individual existing the post-industrial world.

If, as a society, a species, and through our culture, our brains are rewiring as a means of adaptation to our environment… an environment that we, ourselves, manufacture on all levels on a day to day basis… And if the outcome of that rewiring are characteristics like those exhibited in ADHD and autism… then isn’t that just evolution?  Is there really anything we can do about it?

The notion of “slow” or “lagging” development is a tricky one for me to reconcile when considering an ADHD and an autistic mind.  It seems to me that these brains are fast… really fast… so while it might take longer to hit those developmental milestones… the in the moment processing is hyper.

Like most ideas which have guided our civilization over the last century, the notion that human development occurs along a linear trajectory is perhaps doing us more harm than good.  Further, the population of those disenfranchised from “normal” is perhaps getting so big, that we have to seriously reconsider everything that we think we know about human development, psychology and cognition.

For example:

Living in the moment without being able to set long-term goals and commitments is one of those developmental characteristics which is considered to be immature and infantile… when you can move beyond your childish ways and become a responsible adult you’ve hit one of the developmental marks of adulcy.  If you can never make that leap to adulcy, and find yourself swimming in the sea of immediacy… you are developmentally retarded.

Until about the 1960’s… looking beyond the moment, setting long-term goals, and making commitments to your family, your community and your country was perhaps an easier thing to do.  Plus, from a survivalist kind of approach, it would have been far more beneficial for individuals who had those characteristics bred in their bones (or brains) because the institutions in our society were focusing around those characteristics…

In the 1950’s it was “normal” for an individual to be schooled for 12 or 13 years (or if they went to university 16 to 20 years), and when they were finished, they entered the workforce to (most likely) settle into their career where they would pay into their pensions and follow through to a happy and healthy retirement.  Even if school was out of the picture, most people who had that bred-in Protestant work ethic could find a job where they could follow the same ‘normal’ trajectory.  Once people got settled into the workforce, they would find a pretty gal or a handsome lad to marry… then have kids and hope that they would follow the same trajectory and become more normal humans.

However those were more simplistic times, and the problems which individuals faced on a day-to-day basis were not nearly as complex as the mess we got going on now.  Their brains were perhaps developing “normally” over the long term, but with far less variation in the short term.   The problems that these simplistic, but normal, brains had to process on a day-to-day basis made it easy to find that trajectory of ‘normal’… because they were tied to routine and habituation.  It was like these brains were on auto-pilot.  Their brains were wired for their times… this doesn’t seem like such a crazy notion now, does it?

Today, as we find ourselves seeking reprieve from these volatile social, economic and culture storms, aren’t we better off if we do live in the moment?  Is setting long-term goals (especially around a career) really a viable option?  Isn’t it beneficial to our survival to be ready, at any given moment, to be able to adapt to any given thing?

Perhaps those whose brains are wired for living in the moment are better off than those whose brains are wired for long-term and stable environments.

This is all just theory of course… I’m talking out of my ass here… but really, is it such a crazy idea?

We have always labelled mental illness and developmental disorders like autism and ADHD as such because they prevent us from “normally” participating in a “normal” society… but perhaps in this tendency, we are dangerously connecting the inability to conform to stale old traditional modern paradigms with mental illness.

Imagine what a different world we would live in if we finally admitted and came to terms with the fact that Western society isn’t “normal”… it isn’t “natural” and it is in fact making us all crazy.

The next time someone uses the word Retarded to describe an individual with extreme in the moment processing capability, but who lacks the ability to conform to the myths of normal development and social etiquette… tell them that they are the retarded ones, for they are the ones who are developing for ages past… not for the future that we are hurtling towards…