i imagine in many other places & times there was not even sanctioned nonconformity, but during my life i have visited several of the sanctioned subcultures (which are generally pretty conformist within their limits, but moreso than the society around) & managed to fit in, while it served my purposes to.
true eccentricity is not easy for most others to even perceive; they don't get past their initial repugnance to discover what it is that made them dislike it. they substitute something they already know about. you're lucky if it's not a projection. better a cliche of harmless silliness than that-which-must-be-destroyed.
i have met numerous individuals of the authentic kind, not always simpatico but often. these believe in following their own forms, something i call "autotelic" to unite it with similar phenomena (the creation of a work of art, for example). even though i know this is not possible for everyone, i can't help thinking the world would be a better place if it were.
endangered--like the rest of the natural world. aspie is somehow feral.
