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We don’t have words for everything. We never will. Such is the nature of language; such is the nature of change. All around us, things evolve, develop new characteristics. Things become extinct, disappear from memory.
Someone from as recent as a century ago would find it difficult to follow a conversation today.
I often find it confusing to keep up, but fortunately for me, I am not embarrassed to ask people what their words mean, especially slang terms and abbreviations, the shorthand of the technology-driven world.
I’m loping down this road, partly because I am tired of the droning of the politics—the closer we get to the general election, the more boring the banality of the buzzing.
But it is more influenced by an article I read on the BBC website, The genetic mystery of why some people develop autism, last Wednesday.
Scientific research has travelled far, helping us to better understand human behaviours and events.
Think about how things have changed in the realm of mental health. We didn’t have words like neurodiversity. We didn’t know about conditions now defined as ADHD, autism, dyslexia, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders or even depression.
It doesn’t mean they have not existed for as long as humans have had brains. It doesn’t mean that we did not encounter the signs and symptoms.
We just did not know how to recognise them, how to see them as clusters of traits. With words and phrases emerging to help us trace the characteristics, we can more easily identify and help each other manage them.
I now see behaviours that I once found inexplicable and attributed to wilful misconduct through a different lens.
In the school environment, undiagnosed children have a rough time. They’re penalised for forgetfulness, for inattentiveness, for hyperactivity, for the inability to manage information and social interactions.
They are often bullied for being clumsy, or introverted, or being seen as too bright or too dim.
In so many other ways, children and adults have been subjected to cruelty. The names they’re called: dunce, nerd, retard, crazy, mad, all manner of abusive terms have been used, even by parents and teachers.
Yes, we owe much to the developments in science for helping us to rethink those evaluations. For sure, there is still much to learn, and woefully, there is still far too much ignorance, both in structured and unstructured environments.
For many, it is easy to scoff at and dismiss the idea that these conditions are valid elements that shape human behaviour.
Too often, I’ve heard people declare that in their time, none of those things existed.
They say it contemptuously and dismissively that these are inventions of our molly-coddled, entitled times—the age of individualism. Although I dare say, self-indulgence is something of a defining element in these shaggy days.
But I believe that humans have always been a disturbed species, facing circumstances that have provoked a range of responses.
Things that appeared to be quirks and eccentricities have always existed. The conditions that now have names and markers have not suddenly emerged; they were simply not recognised.
We pointed at them without appropriate words, perhaps with fear.
People are inclined to be fearful of things they don’t understand. Often, the instinct is to mount judgmental pulpits, pronouncing upon what is morally right and wrong through religious beliefs.
The cry is to put an end to the abominations that have cursed the planet by erasing those who are different.
A striking example is the attacks on people on the basis of their sexual orientation. This has become an epidemic, they say, growing and contaminating the righteous. As if it is something new.
Labels and identities may not have been affixed until recent times, but the truth is, no society has a history that has been without sexual fluidity. We make moral judgements because it is the nature of human behaviour to do so.
I really don’t see why we must bully and hate on people over what is essentially none of our business. Why must there be legislation to oppress them? How people express their emotional and sexual feelings is their right.
I take exception to paedophilia, which is particularly repugnant because it is an abuse to childhood, and it is often perpetrated by people who are supposed to protect young ones—the church has traditionally been a hotbed for that kind of treachery.
But as long as there is parity and consent, why should we be meddling?
Photo: Annalicia Caruth/ Wired868.
I’ve seen so many tortured souls, young and old, struggling with their divided selves because they know they do not fit the biological profile society has imposed on them.
They get hostility from family and others, at school, at work. Their lives are tormented by the constant judging. You think people want to be pariahs?
Feeling that one belongs to something—a group, a place—is perhaps the most powerful component of our sense of identity.
Diversity is the marvellous mark of humans—so much in common, so much that is different—why should we let ourselves get distracted by labels that divide us?
Human behaviour has not changed much over time. The differences are in the technology that enables different actions.
We can see more of what’s going on; our opinions get more widespread circulation, and we think it’s a sign that we are getting worse. We still behave as our ancestors did; it’s simply human nature.
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Vaneisa Baksh is a columnist with the Trinidad Express, an editor and a cricket historian. She is the author of a biography of Sir Frank Worrell.
