“Hey, buddy. Just so you know, you’re autistic.”
“What? Hey, fuck you. That was uncalled for.”
Doing gods work
Edit: the idea is I have a connection with my friends so I would have a shot at getting through to them.
But would medical professionals accept your claim to get the support they require?
Me: “Just FYI, you’ve got undiagnosed ADHD.”
Friend 1: “Wow, what can I do about this?”
Me: “You’re too poor to access mental health care, and most professionals haven’t accepted this as a diagnosis for your racial/gender cohort. So, unfortunately, there’s nothing to be done.”
Friend 2: “What about me?”
Me: “You’re transgender.”
Friend 2: “What the fuck did you just call me?!”
Im just talking about the people I know now where they are a lot more comfortable with themselves because they contextualize what happened to them.
Do you think any of them would listen? I believe in your quest because I personally have friends, myself included, that would have benefitted from this service. I just wonder if some guy came to me and said he was my friend from the future and that I needed evaluated, if I would take it seriously at all.
Well, it would at least be the best I told you so ever.
I largely agree with Siddhartha that wisdom can only be gained through experience. I just think of all the times I knew something intellectually but didn’t understand it sufficiently to properly act on it until I lived it. But there is a more fun corollary from Zen Without Zen Masters, “If you think you can get beyond pleasure without going through it, we are definitely on different trips.”
Wisdom also teaches us that learned knowledge can be as beneficial as wisdom. This is what allows society to advance.
True! But that requires trust. Trust that the person transferring the knowledge correctly interpreted their experience and was able to communicate it well. As wisdom fades from living memory (as those who directly experienced it pass or are marginalized), it seems difficult for society to maintain the integrity of that knowledge across new contexts. The scientific method is supposed to help with this, but we have difficulty following it at scale. Reminds me of this comic about collecting questions.
I’m a bit split on this.
On one hand you’d think you’re doing something good, helping a friend.
On the other hand, so consider that everyone you know at this moment, is like that because of what they’ve gone through. All that trauma, hardship, everything that happens to you from birth, forms your personality. Take that away from them, and at best you just weaken the person, at worst, you completely change their personality. You can’t know what past experience makes one stronger.
This is actually largely why the uber wealthy don’t seem to have a grasp at the everyday people’s struggle. They’re so far detached from it because they never really experienced it.
Also do consider that while today we might have various sympathetic treatments for a number of mental issues, even just 20-30 years ago a lot of the treatments would mean being drugged out of your mind 24/7 to ensure you’re not a source of harm for others or yourself…
I have a bit more hope that my friends would still be my friends without their scars.
I’d tell my best friend to question her sexuality. Like right now, not 30 years later when it is too late to have an operation.
