Thank you for continuing to rock with me as I process the book that is in my head.
This chapter has given me fits. It is the chapter in which I have had to get clearer about to whom I am speaking. Note: I am not reposting the new introduction here in Substack. Since the introduction is mainly a layout of the book, the new version does not offer new substance, just a rewording of the layout.
For those who supported my crowdfund, this entire chapter will be available through Gumroad, where you supported the crowdfund.
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This book supports leadership by Neurodivergent People.
Your unique way of processing is an important community asset. This book helps you think about your neurodivergence as a set of leadership tools, for your present and future communities.
Perhaps you are reading this book because you already recognize your ability to meet certain needs in your communities (the ones you have or will create). This book describes actions you can take to meet the needs of your neurodiverse communities.
This book calls you to action. If you want better life outcomes for the neurodiverse population of people in this society, YOU have to intentionally design and construct that existence, for yourself and others.
The future is being created right now, with or without your intention. The future is being directed by those who have the most access to the various sources of power, discussed below.
Those with the power to direct the future have shaped discussions about the future and managed resources for the future around the production of newer, bigger, faster, more destructive toys. These technological innovations will enable them to continue controlling people and the natural environment into the future. These technologies will enable faster production, but will do nothing to disrupt the power dynamics that are putting millions of people at risk of not having their basic needs met. Although framed as disruptive technologies and innovations, their futuristic toys are anything but disruptive to historical relationships.
The way the world is designed, the patterns you see today, are the results of someone's intentional decision making in the past. You are witnessing, in real-time, the effects of centuries of dark design. In technology, dark design describes functions inside software, hardware, platforms, etc., that intentionally mislead people in directions they might not go if they had a more complete understanding of how that software, hardware or platform functions. The magic of dark design is that it makes the user of a system believe their needs are being met, while steadily guiding the user toward some predetermined purpose, which serves the actual beneficiaries of the system.
You have lived inside a design that empathizes, at a deep level, with the financial and social wants of a small, international group of power hoarders (billionaires). The design of the 40-hour work week, for example, has worked for that small group of people, but not for you and your nervous system. You've had to design a life that could survive office fluorescent lighting, surveillance by those in charge and/or by co-workers, cringe-y ice breakers, punitive performance reviews, unwritten social rules, unclear directions and misdirection. Even if you haven’t had to work 40+ hours a week, the collective acceptance of dehumanizing labor has still impacted the way you think about yourself and others.
The experience of neurodivergency in the U.S. has been designed by a state (country) intent on meeting the needs of rent seekers. Rent seekers, such as Elon Musk, gain wealth through the state (think tax breaks and business infrastructure), without giving back to the society at the same level or at any level. To support these rent seekers, you have been undereducated (even if you were treated as gifted and talented and graduated with top honors), so you would never truly challenge the power of rent seekers. For example, your high school did not make clear to you the role finance plays in healthcare and other systems. In these systems, shareholder profits are more important than service delivery to patients and the general public. Poor education about what the healthcare system actually does has impacted you as a citizen and as a decision maker in your own care inside a system that pathologizes, neglects and penalizes neurodivergence.
By designing systems in which Neurodivegent People almost always have to make special requests for accommodations or have to seek some type of relief from the work environment, oppressors teach Neurodivergent People to distrust and doubt their own power. While neurodivergencies (for example: Autism, ADHD and dyslexia) are themselves disabling, you have been further disabled by and your confidence has been shaken by these systems. Unfortunately, you've had to understand at a deep level how society treats people who cannot/will not produce in specified ways. You've had to understand what it means to live in constant stress-response mode.
Your responses to your own life experiences suggest you understand the value of caring for the needs of a neurodiverse population in the U.S., some of which cannot or will not comply with system demands. Despite your desires to just blend in, your life experiences have forced you to question what it means to be normal. If you have had a traumatic brain injury, for example, you may have temporarily or permanently lost basic personal grooming skills. Skills regression has shown you that life is not linear. It does not move in a straight, forward line. As another example: if you have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, you may experience debilitating fatigue and exhaustion in the course of working a 40-hour week or from just existing. These experiences have shown you the importance of treating rest as a daily ritual. No matter what the clock on your phone says or no matter what your work schedule says, you’ve learned you have to rest when your body says it’s time to rest. While listening to your body is unAmerican, listening to your body has been a way of your resisting the pressure to be normal in this society. When you’ve listened to your body, you have encouraged others to do the same.
Running from Power
Because systems in the U.S. (and elsewhere) adversely impact Neurodivergent People, for most of your life, you have been in a constant defense mode to protect yourself from systemic power. Even as you've had to defend yourself against powerful forces in the material world, you have been taught that the desire for power is bad. Oppressors teach Neurodivergent People (through veiled and explicit religious messaging - blessed are the meek), it is immoral and vulgar to want power and to assert your own power. From the oppressor’s point-of-view: the oppressor’s use of power is good and deserved. Your desire for power is bad and undeserved. YOU cannot be trusted with power. So you don’t talk about power, even about the power you wield or need in your everyday life. You certainly don't talk about the power that would enable you to lead yourself and your community toward liberation.
The reluctance to talk directly about power comes from another place: the desire to hold on to your power. You have grown up in a colonialist system that gets its power from people's pretending the system does not exist. You have been taught to constantly rebrand yourself - to appear nice and good. For optics and self-image, you have to put distance between systems of harm and yourself, even as you benefit personally from the harm done by these systems. When there is a Prison Industrial Complex (the modern enslavement infrastructure) that GUARANTEES its shareholders return on investment, you benefit from cheap goods that come from the labor of (a disproportionately Black population of) enslaved people. Also, the prison pipeline removes highly capable individuals from competing with you for jobs and other resources. In addition, by connecting prison enslavement to the narrative of “criminal justice”, power brokers shield you from the reality that state violence is a persistent threat to your life in the U.S. If you are not written into the prison business/manufacturing model as enslaved labor, because you are not Black or from another racialized group, you have privilege. You have power.
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