Today I went shopping at the supermarket. Coming the other way just as I'd walked through the supermarket doors were two kids, a boy and a girl, and their father (if their mother was also present, I can't remember). One of the kids (can't remember whether it was the boy or the girl), running in the unpredictable, erratic path they often do, almost ran into me in a way that the unpredictability of their path made very difficult to avoid.
Because of my reaction to this, it turned out the father was serious business. He flew into a rage after I'd just walked past him and his kids. Standing erect with muscles flexed, he shouted "What the f**k are you saying you a***hole? I'll f*****g knock you about." So perhaps it was a full blown, road rage style thing I'd done? No, all I'd done was quietly tutted and mildly shook my head. The last thing I wanted was accidental physical contact with a child. Was I supposed to get accused of being a paedophile or something because that sort of thing might well happen through such accidental contact? All I wanted to do was communicate that I'd rather not have children running into me. Or are tutting, and shaking your head, considered sexual innuendos nowadays? More likely, he might have assumed he was detecting a swear word under my breath when I tutted, which was not there. Whatever I did wrong, his reaction was a disproportionate one. Wrong place at the wrong time.
I was already a bit muddled up because on the way to the supermarket I almost had another kid walking into me, by insisting on walking in a marching fashion with her arms flailing while allowing me only the narrowest space for passage on the edge of the pavement. If I had to, I'd have hopped to the side into the roadway, even if a vehicle might hit me, to avoid contact. Again what was I supposed to do, get accused of being a paedophile?
Because the supermarket has entrances on both sides I ended up going straight out the back then taking a roundabout detour in case the guy was waiting for me or something, eventually to do my shopping elsewhere. The incident in the supermarket didn't really upset or affect me though. You feel relieved instead, I guess, to have escaped a violence situation. But it does show what can happen because I make the maximum possible effort to avoid children, or not want them in my space. You simply can't get away with anything to do with children. Yet I have no regrets about what happened also because I will happily accept if a child's father might knock me about, or if I'm hit by a bus or something by jumping out of the way of a child, as long as I at least tried to maximise efforts to avoid children. I'll therefore happily accept the risk of injury or even death, should it arise. If this seems extreme, it's because society is extreme, particularly the paedophile hysteria which traumatises the lives of people like me. I see the country where I live as a 'paedocracy', which is not too far off from saying it's a nanny state as it's often referred to being. As a paedocracy, children are sacred cows above the law and so can get away unpunished and unchallenged with anything, persistent antisocial behaviour or what. The rule of law has broken down as far as children are concerned. Adults can end up living in a prison of fear about which nothing can be done, because if children are challenged this will incur retribution. Because of this Molotov cocktail of antisocial behaviour and paedophile hysteria I must mention I recently moved house by renting out my flat and moving to another flat in a neighbourhood where there are virtually no children, which has been an excellent move for my health, well being and wholeness.
From an Asperger point of view, it also goes to show just how much peril Aspies can be in, because of the chance they will slip up in their interaction with others. Things go as far as a very real danger of violence because of an Aspie's social accident proneness, which is a serious issue.
15 Oct 2011, 4:10 pm
