Or when viewed critically, as with the need for a $10 cash deposit to use a prepaid calling card from a motel.

Why put something on the plate which is not intended to be eaten? Why say things you don’t mean? Why the insistence on rigid conformity? The extreme variability in how much (or little) actions are valued depending on circumstance. (Numerous examples may be found in the TV show "3rd Rock From the Sun")

An apparent part of context is the (perceived) authority of the person engaged in (or directing, or sanctioning) the behavior in question. Accepting direction with passive compliance is highly valued in some cases and highly sanctioned in others. Is power one of the variables in "knowing what to do"? This could account for bullying, where there power is unchecked by reason. (can also have reason with no power...)

Context serves to establish a frame of reference... but nothing says that the "frame" has to have square corners or be well-behaved. Nor does it have to be static, as situational fluidity seems a hallmark of NT ("neurotypical", or neurologically typical) behavior. Problems for autism-spectrum folks arise when the “frame” changes color and thereby becomes invisible (if it’s a social "color" we’re blind to). Or if other geometrical niceties occur: using the model of NT behavior as a subset of behavioral-perceptual possibilities, various social "optical illusions" are often employed, which we see in their multidimensional "raw form" rather than their projection (as with a map?) onto an agreed-upon lesser number of dimensions which perhaps form the walls of the box which most people think within. So depending on where we are, we may see the projection accurately, or skewed (as with keystone distortion), or backwards (as from the other side), or not at all of we’re seeing it edge-on - or if we’re simply looking in a different direction.

Last revised: June 17, 2007
(c)2007 Dave Spicer
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