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
Autistic Genius: Real or Imaginary?
I’ve run across a couple of other writers recently who’ve made efforts to debunk the notion of autistic genius, and since I’ve been one to lean heavily on the idea that “autistic intelligence,...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 11/20/09 | No Comments | Read More
Time for this Elephant to Leave this Circus
Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Limbo. Those were the four big places to go. The weirdest of all was Limbo. Limbo was where they sent unbaptized babies. The reasoning was, “It wasn’t their f...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 11/13/09 | 6 Comments | Read More
There is a short story I read years ago that I’ve always remembered as a tiny masterpiece of irony. It was set among what are sometimes called First Nations people, but viewed with a slightly diff...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 11/6/09 | 2 Comments | Read More
While the notion of Everyday Autism Everywhere is still in the air around here (welcome, William Stillman readers), I’d like to further expand some of the ideas Mr. Stillman and I have been floating...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/30/09 | No Comments | Read More
There was a cascade of insights and epiphanies that was set off for me from coming to the knowledge, at the age of 36, that both myself and a 7-year-old girl who later became my stepdaughter occupied ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/23/09 | No Comments | Read More
Grandma, They’re Not Santa Claus!
There’s a comic on XM Radio’s Canadian Comedy Channel who’s gotten good mileage out of his grandmother having told him that she does not believe in gay people. He recounts going around and aro...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/16/09 | No Comments | Read More
NightStorm is a 23-year-old Asperger-diagnosed autist, a watercolor artist and writer of original and fan fiction, a blogger and a lover of storytelling and role play. Like so very many others then, ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/13/09 | No Comments | Read More
I THINK IN PICTURES. Words are like a second language to me. I translate both spoken and written words into full-color movies, complete with sound, which run like a VCR tape in my head. When som...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/9/09 | No Comments | Read More
“Stick to the image” is perhaps the most concise advice one can come away with from James Hillman’s archetypal psychology. When trying to see through to what is happening in a dream, or in an ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 10/2/09 | 1 Comment | Read More
The Internet and the Iceberg Whole
Item: Ensign James “Peewee” Cobb, at 5’6”, 124 pounds, and 23 years old—in Pat Frank’s 1959 Cold War thriller Alas, Babylon—distinguishes himself as the only pilot in Fighting Forty-Fo...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/25/09 | No Comments | Read More
As a white boy in the Chicago suburbs who devoured every jazz biography I could get my hands on, my first encounter with the idea of “calling the children home” was a snippet from Nat Shapiro and ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/15/09 | No Comments | Read More
They Call Me Quiet, But I’m A Riot
Ebulliently defiant on your car radio, Katie White—no matter what friendly guess or nickname she’s offered—is all sass and holding her ground: that’s not her name. Performing live, though,...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More
Neurodiversity: A Pre-emptive Reply
Hello, there. I’ve been expecting you. While the focus here at Shift may be a good bit more broad than that found at, say, Ballastexistenz, aspie rhetor, Whose Planet Is It Anyway?, or Asperge...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 08/28/09 | No Comments | Read More
I. Intelligence Intelligence, as most everyone will cheerfully agree, is distributed unevenly; some people have more of it, some have less. Rare, though, are those who will identify themselves as...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 08/28/09 | 1 Comment | 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