Hypoglycaemia: drunk is more fun than this.

One of the films that I have a sort of love-hate relationship with is the Bill Murray-starring black comedy Groundhog Day. I will not go into what that film is about, except to say that on the first occasion when Murray‘s character gets an awfully heightened sense of deja vu, he is asked by his producer if he is drunk. His response is, and I quote, “Drunk’s more fun than this”.

One size does NOT fit all

Arrogance is a wonderful thing. No, really, it is. For one thing, it gives beholders a great insight into which people out there should, in fact, be kicked to the curb and left to starve, and whom should be allowed to take over whatever position of say they hold in a society. But everywhere we look, we are unfortunately bombarded with examples of arrogance so powerful and all-inclusive that they are truly flabbergasting to behold.

The arrogance of people associated with disability services, social services, and services in general is something that has the ability to turn stomachs. When I was a child, I heard a number of stories about disabled folk. Usually ones told to me (and the rest of the class) by teachers. These stories always focused on people with obvious disabilities, or the exact opposite of what I call reversion disabilities. Reversion disabilities, for those who do not speak the refined English that I do, are disabilities that, if you were to reverse the ratio between those with the disability and those without, those with would not be considered disabled. Hence the term, reversion disability. The stories I was told as a boy all concerned themselves with things like blindness or paralysis. Now, do not get me wrong, stories like those of Louis Braille are inspiring and should serve as an example to children. But the thing is, being autistic and being blind are two entirely different things.

Being blind entails the loss of one sense. Specifically, sight. And there are different levels of blindness. Just because your eyes properly focus a light signal through your optic nerves and into the receptor cells of your brain does not mean you can see well. Just like your SLR camera (cameraphones are only good for shoving up one’s arse, sorry), your eyes can only be as good as the weakest component. If the lens, mirror, optic nerve, or worse yet the sensor, in your eye is not up to spec, then you have a problem.