There is a young student from Gabon in my political science class and the other day we were having a discussion about U.S. foreign policy. Not surprisingly, he wasn't too thrilled with it. Neither am I, for that matter, but there is very little I can do about it. We may call ourselves a democracy, but the fact is, when it comes to elections, there really isn't much of a choice. So I don't know if I am better off under this system of government (liberal democracy) or under a government where all the elections are controlled? So in answer to his question, am I in favor of liberal democracy, I'd have to say yes, but then I've never lived under any other system of government. In that sense I am like Benjamin the Donkey in "Animal Farm" (one of our required readings) whose feelings about things was "life goes on, regardless." I do what I can do in my small patch of the woods and don't worry about the rest.
Anyway, he shared a South African proverb with me, that if you go into a village where everyone is dancing on their left foot, you shouldn't start insisting that they all dance on their right foot. Which he feels U.S. foreign policy is saying. I thought about it and said, yes, but sometimes the dance does need to be changed. Dr. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela were among those who were not content to dance on their left feet like everyone else. They changed the dance. The ranks of Unitarian-Universalism are filled with many men and women who did not accept the dance as it was. And I think the world is a better place because of it.
He said, yes, but it is one thing to try to persuade people to change how they dance or live; it is another thing to force that change on them, without trying to find out what is good in the way they are doing things. To come in and stomp all over another people's way of doing things and to automatically call it bad.
We in the Aspie community are engaged in a dance with the Neurotypical community and the question is should we all dance the same way, the way the Neurotypicals insist, or is there room for modifying the dance that honors who we are? This is a tricky line to walk. If I am into ballroom dancing, is it appropriate for me to go to the local dance studio and crash a hip-hop class, or should I look on the schedule and see that the ballroom class is at 3 and the hip-hop class is at 2 and that way not disrupt those who don't want to dance the way I want to dance? Sometimes I feel the Aspie community is saying, we want to dance the way we want to dance whenever and however we want to dance, and if I want to do ballroom at 2, then everyone should just accommodate me. That is not right either. There has to be a compromise, There is a time to change the dance and there is a time to not change the dance.
Anyway, he shared a South African proverb with me, that if you go into a village where everyone is dancing on their left foot, you shouldn't start insisting that they all dance on their right foot. Which he feels U.S. foreign policy is saying. I thought about it and said, yes, but sometimes the dance does need to be changed. Dr. Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela were among those who were not content to dance on their left feet like everyone else. They changed the dance. The ranks of Unitarian-Universalism are filled with many men and women who did not accept the dance as it was. And I think the world is a better place because of it.
He said, yes, but it is one thing to try to persuade people to change how they dance or live; it is another thing to force that change on them, without trying to find out what is good in the way they are doing things. To come in and stomp all over another people's way of doing things and to automatically call it bad.
We in the Aspie community are engaged in a dance with the Neurotypical community and the question is should we all dance the same way, the way the Neurotypicals insist, or is there room for modifying the dance that honors who we are? This is a tricky line to walk. If I am into ballroom dancing, is it appropriate for me to go to the local dance studio and crash a hip-hop class, or should I look on the schedule and see that the ballroom class is at 3 and the hip-hop class is at 2 and that way not disrupt those who don't want to dance the way I want to dance? Sometimes I feel the Aspie community is saying, we want to dance the way we want to dance whenever and however we want to dance, and if I want to do ballroom at 2, then everyone should just accommodate me. That is not right either. There has to be a compromise, There is a time to change the dance and there is a time to not change the dance.
