The Beautiful People
Ever look at someone and get envious, maybe even jealous of them? Of course you have. Nearly everyone has.
They’re so beautiful. They have everything. They’re such a loving family. Great jobs. Lots of friends. Mental health. Etc. Etc.
I’ll spare everyone the cliché about why this usually isn’t even true.
But have you ever held onto that feeling too long and let it consume you? Have you ever let it encourage you to do things that maybe you didn’t want to? I have not (although, I do admit to ruminating on how unfair it is that power begets power).
I’ll tell you why:
People who you think are better than you had advantages you didn’t have, like a socialization style that put them in touch with the right people (extroversion), or maybe a more typical (not ‘normal’ or ‘better’) neurotype altogether. Maybe rich parents and ‘better’ educations. Plastic surgery. Maybe even natural beauty.
But most are privileged and repressing their true desires. The world is built for these people to ignore their faults as long as they’re ‘succeeding’.
So, I’ll tell you this as a traumatized autistic person (and I know it’s hard to internalize): the best one can do is take lessons from living in a world that doesn’t want to see us, and true self-reflection from one’s unfair comparisons of one’s self to others.
It is then that one sees that those people will NEVER achieve self-awareness, let alone self-actualization. They’re just going through the motions like zombies.
These people are not better than you. They’re just all the same. They fit into the machine better, and honestly, most of them are actually worse off for it.
They think the material rewards will mitigate the damage to their psyches, even as they repeatedly fail to fill the holes in their hearts. Usually, what comes next is cruelty.
That said, I didn’t deserve the abuse that I’ve suffered, but I’m actually grateful that I’m autistic and don’t care about appearances. It may have saved my life.
