Seth Underwood's Blog, page 3

RW Blog Post- The Final Cure

 

As part of the ongoing mapping of Rosella Tolfree’s world, this blog post outlines earlier steps in society that take place before another blog post.

As a sci-fi author, I’m showing how society moves step by step into the darkness. Here, a dark practice of mental health not used in a long time. But one that even today still haunts society. I’m talking here seeing the mentally ill as incurable leading to only one final cure that removes the burden from society.

What I'm Reading On Medium 10-27-2021

I thought I would share what I'm reading on Medium these days.

So, I've been following some pieces about autism. Seeing what other writers are doing.

I'm curious about this one entitled "What if Autistic People Were the Majority?"

As a sci-fi writer the title has grabbed my attention.

As an older Autistic, I dislike Social Media... but I still have to use it.

 

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash









My posting on my issues with Social Media and being autistic was posted on Invisible Illness.

Check it out.

Elements to Start a Novel... eh?

Image- once upon a time writer author, by Ramdlon, Source pixabay (Processed using Adobe Spark)

Austin Hackney on Medium wrote the following about where a novel must begin-

Introduce the protagonist/s
Show the protagonist/s motivation, flaw, and goal
Set the scene of the everyday world in which the story begins
Suggest the core conflict and theme of the novel
Introduce the antagonist/s
Raise the first ‘story question’ which will ‘hook’ the reader’s interest and keep them reading
Foreshadow the ending

 

Interestingly, on Quora, a similar question was asked. One of the best answers came from Marcus Geduld,published author and lifelong reader. “No. The start of a novel must make you interested in reading the next part of the novel.”

 

His answer is echoed by a lot of other posts to that question. I agree with Mr. Geduld. Not all novels need to begin with outlining the whole novel right off the bat.

 

You see a lot of this upfront outlining with online descriptions of romance novels on Amazon. It’s a marketing technique. In the realm of sexuality, all things must be up front, and nothing concealed. Readers will go through the book descriptions and posted book ratings before they commit. And yes, this happens with other genres as well.

 

Often, the problem arises with readers themselves. They become used to certain marketing techniques of their popular authors and expect others to do the same. They also expect other writers to write like their favorite author. This isn’t to shame readers for being single-minded. But it’s human nature to become tribal. We see it with social-political issues, and you see it with reading.

 

Readers who keep an open mind about what they are reading and show a willingness to read anything will, in the long term, become better people. Reading begets knowledge. Knowledge can beget wisdom. And who doesn’t want wisdom?

Committee for Better Mental Health

 

I’ve done research into Neurodiversity, and I came across an interviewby Autism Live of Mr. Jonathan Mitchell.

Mr. Mitchell is an older autistic who maintains a blog concerning neurodiversity. Newsweek wrote him up some time ago dealing with the debate over autism. He is opposed to the Neurodiversity movement and has received a considerable amount of hatred for it. That’s messed up if you ask me and exposes some flaws with this movement if this hatred is coming from it.

One of the common diagrams used by this movement is a “Spiky Profile” diagram. This diagram has IQ on the Y axis with various cognitive elements going down the X axis. It’s showing how ASDs are better in some things but not others.

This diagram is nothing more than a Venn diagram displayed in a linear format. Social researchers frequently use Venn diagrams in Critical Race Theory, but they call them intersectional diagrams.

We can display comparative information between two populations in multiple diagram formats. For example, we could use a simple bar chart instead of an X/Y graph for cognitive abilities.

But none of this proves anything except differences between measurements.

It can give fodder for Neurodiversity’s opposition to show that it’s proof of a pathology in need of correcting.

For Neurodiversity proponents to make the argument that various brain structures are nothing more than an evolutionary response, then they are going to need to prove why evolution has not favored this adaptation in the species overall. One in 160 children have autism in the world. That’s 0.00625 of all the children in the world.

Yeah, that’s a big number of kids when multiplied out. But still less than 1% of the overall population suggesting that it’s possibly a genetic disorder.

If we take the recent COVID-19 variants as a proxy for evolution, the Delta variant has subsumed all other variants so far in many global locations, showing the power of true evolution. If autism was a true evolutionary process of the human brain necessary for our survival, then natural selection would produce way more than less than 1%.

Now I’ve heard the Charles Babbage had Asperger’s, along with a host of other scientists. But all these men lived before a time of formal diagnosis, and we are only speculating. Despite its well documented in the modern era, most autistic men tend not to be creative in science. Most can’t even hold down a job, as noted by Mr. Mitchell’s own life. Yes, I would say a few higher end ASDs may end up in some scientific field, because of their obsessive pursuit of specific knowledge. But this requires them to have an obsession. Which the current criteria of the DSM puts into doubt since all they need is “two fixated interests and repetitive behaviours.” Which means those interests could be something inane and non-beneficial to society. For all we know, maybe these men were hyped up on drugs, maybe suffered from some form of untreated bipolar disorder, or a combination of all the above.

Read here about the Committee for Better Mental Health on www.rosellatolfree.com

My first article in Invisible Illness

Photo by Jesse Young on Unsplash

The other day my article entitled, “As Someone With Autism, A Capitol Rioter’s Autism Scares Me“ was published in the Medium online publication, Invisible Illness.

As it says in the about for Invisible Illness, “We’ve created a publication called Invisible Illness to house all of the best stories on Medium about mental health and to help people find great stories and help spark even more conversation.”

Opening up about my Autism is difficult. Many want to paint a smiling face on the disorder. But there are darker sides to Autism that have caused society to react negatively. We are all not like Rain Man.

I take issue with the 2013 disorder merger on a scientific level. There are post merger studies showing there’s been actual problems, including one from Germany where clinicians are biased towards the more severe ends of the spectrum.

This is the problem with a spectrum theory, where will be the scientific and social focus? After all, there’s only so much resources available.

While before the merger, there was a healthy amount of both Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome studies being done.

Well, enough soap boxing for now.

My SSA Claim

Photo by DZHA on Unsplash

I wrote a piece on Medium about my attempt to file a Social Security disability claim for my chronic migraines, which had caused me to retire early.

Well, long and short, the appeal went now where fast.

We’ve designed our social security system in the U.S. as poverty relief. Not a true system to provide financial security to all when needed.

It’s no wonder for years conservatives have been wanting to eliminate bits and pieces of it. Seeing the program nothing more than like all other poverty handout programs.

Are we going to win the CO2 race?

 

I just posted on Medium, "Are We Really Going to Win Against Climate Change? - Or is this about making money?"

In Rosella Tolfree's world, we failed to change the climate. To be honest, I'm concerned when I listen to T.V. channels like Bloomberg that the Rosella's world may occur. We may miss targets because of the scale of the project.

Image- Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions to Limit Global Warming and Climate Change. By NicoElNino. Adobe File# 410128426- stock.adobe.com

NEW-- USRM-ISB Installment 0.43 - April Fools

 

leschnyhan/stock.adobe.com

Just posted on April 1st, 2021 a micro-story hinting at some story elements in the Rosella Tolfree plots. Included is a video link allowing the reader to see what Rosella saw.

Check out the story here.

Corporate External Locus of Control-- New Short Story

Just posted a new Sci-Fi short story- Corporate External Locus of Control.

For those interested... the external locus of control is defined as a belief "that the things which happen in" people's "lives are out of their control, and even that their own actions are a result of external factors, such as fate, luck, the influence of powerful others (such as doctors, the police, or government officials)"