I've spent a good deal of my life around creative people or would be creative people. To a great degree I am spoiled by this. If I move into situations - say, corporate offices - that are quite different Western subcultures and for a significant amount of time I can experience derealization, amongst other symptoms, like feelings of panic. If I have a very specific role in such an environment and the role involves clear tasks, I can usually muddle by. But otherwise it can be a problem. Or could be when I was younger.
this is why it never ceases to amaze me that there are people who inhabit worlds which sustain many cultures and subcultures in a relatively small geographic region (IOW they don't live in a small tribe literally removed from the rest of the world) who fail to recognize the degree to which reality is culturally constructed. all one has to do is step outside of one's "comfort zone" and try to inhabit a "foreign" culture, and this should be blatantly obvious.
for me, certain subcultures--
within my own broader western culture--are virtually impossible for me to penetrate without suffering real, and debilitating, psychic distress. any sort of corporate culture or very mainstream, commercialized arenas are the most striking examples: i cannot set foot inside of, say, a "sports bar" or one of those restaurants that are advertised on television (big, national chains like chili's or appleby's) without feeling overwhelming anxiety. and it's not simply the physical environment it's every bit the "dealing with people" aspect. of course, i'm also terrified of american-style suburbs, strip malls, and "big box" stores--and the "culture" which surrounds them.
many might interpret this as a sort of snobbery, but this misses the mark entirely (moreover, my annual income is
barely even 5 digits). these "worlds" are largely sustained by those whose beliefs, values, and ways of thinking seem very much at odds with my own. the denizens speak a different language entirely. and "being myself" in such places often invites more trouble than it's worth--best to avoid such places entirely if possible.
As another example of this I was once in a rather depressed state - over a recent relationship event - and watching a documentary on the industrial production of food. There was a long sequence where they filmed the discussion by the Innovations department of how to make the food and what it would be. It had some sort of starch crust and they were brainstorming fillings in a horrifying mix of business speak and scientific jargon. I was in an auditorium at a university and everyone watching was very quiet.
I turned to an acquaintance and asked: is this film a comedy?
She said no.
This frightened me. I was not in a mood to laugh, but up until then I had assumed the people were joking, that it was some sort of satire.
The combination of my mood, which was very low, with what seemed really quite insane to me being taken seriously - not striking people as insane or hilarious - freaked me out. I had to leave the room. Soon I returned to a nice, everyday sadness.
and this is very much why temple grandin remains an enigma: one would
think she would find it impossible to work in the industry she does--or at least, her "work" would be more about
dismantling the industry altogether. (edit: i realize this is quite vague--well,
beyond vague--but i figure you probably know what i mean anyways: the whole not seeing something for what it is, especially by a person who would seem to be quite capable for seeing it for what it is.)
I often find myself much more comfortable with other cultures or even certain subcultures that I have previously had little contact with than certain mainstream Western cultural settings. I also tend to feel at home in multicultural settings, where there is no real normal and we are all groping about to find pleasant ways of dealing with each other.
Environments that demand a consistant false smile and displays of enthusiasm and confidence - especially if there are regular rituals of dominance and submission - and where other emotions are taboo
make me crazy.
EDIT: implicit in the above for me is that normal has a good chance of being insane.
i often question why i am presently living in the u.s. when i am extremely uncomfortable around more than 99 percent of the populace; whereas with most of europe, asia, and central america, i am only extremely uncomfortable around perhaps 85 percent of the people (obviously, there is enormous variance between specific countries)--and this "discomfort" i experience elsewhere is far less deleterious to my mental health.
the ways in which people read and misread other cultures, and impart their own values and interpretations upon them, is fascinating (and i'm hardly excluding myself from this practice). within the continental u.s. for instance, i find navajos to be amongst the friendliest and most hospitable of peoples. yet i've encountered countless individuals who are of the opinion that navajos tend to be cold, unfriendly, and even hostile. these people interpret the habits of not looking directly at the person you are talking to, saying very little, lacking overt enthusiasm and not spewing all the usual "niceties" as hostile and unfriendly.
by the same token, i vastly prefer scandinavians, germans, and the dutch to italians, portuguese, and spanish--and i'm inclined to interpret the mannerisms of the latter bunch as somewhat forced and insincere. though i actually think their behavior is very much genuine, it's difficult for me to perceive it that way because all that smiling and touching and hugging simply isn't
my way.
returning to the theme of the OP, and considering just one simple aspect (beliefs): apparently, while not a majority, still a substantial portion of americans
believe that barack obama is muslim, foreign born, and the antichrist. (at least, according to a story i heard on NPR the other day) i think more than adequate evidence has been presented by various mainstream media agencies to counter the first two, and as to the last, well? honestly, one could spend hours--or even days--compiling a list of falsehoods which either a sizable percentage, or a majority, of americans believe--and this list could be comprised solely of very basic factual-type information. were one to expand the list to include delusions based upon a much broader ignorance--like the belief that obama (or obama care) is socialist, or that obama is doing "many of the things which hitler did" (also from the NPR story. quite vague, but i suspect they don't mean things like straightening out railway time tables.), one could probably spend a lifetime compiling such a list.
granted, americans are an easy target. regardless, i can confidently say that i believe that
most people in the world believe quite a substantial number of things which have been more than adequately established as false.