Insanity: Controllers Control Yourselves

What they say:

• "I'm Type-A."

What they mean:

• "I need to control others."

The Type-A individual, if we go with a commonly accepted hypothesis, is:

outgoing, ambitious, rigidly organized, highly status-conscious, impatient, anxious, proactive, and concerned with time management. People with Type A personalities are often high-achieving "workaholics". They push themselves with deadlines, and hate both delays and ambivalence. People with Type A personalities experience more job-related stress and less job satisfaction. They tend to set high expectations for themselves, and may believe others have these same high expectations of them as well. Interestingly, those with Type A personalities do not always outperform those with Type B personalities.

What's being contested here, however, is not necessarily the personality type hypothesized above. Rather, it is the type of constant manipulative behaviour of an individual who self discloses as Type-A. That is, someone who habitually misuses a description for lack of a definition, and who missuses a definition to hide from others their will to power, their need to control in order to satisfy some corrupt and consuming need.

This lamentation (complaint) aims to show solidarity with those who have been subjected to the behaviour of people who habitually, in small but especially large ways, exert unacceptable pressure on undeserving individuals. Be mindful that, these days, societies are chock full of people with control issues. An entire generation continues to emerge that relies on people of goodwill to not challenge their cruel behaviours.

Whoever is trying to bring you down is already below you.

Let the Challenge Begin

1. The behaviour of people who openly and unreservedly identify as "Type A" is, in a word, annoying. Every person I've met who volunteers that information about themselves - and in academia such aggressive types are as common as the squeaky hinges on the doors to every building - sends a message that they are imposing an excuse that is an attempt to force the rest of us to put up with their impatience, their annihilating competitiveness, their need to control, their obsessive time urgency, and their workaholism that cements their often complete identification with problems they need to solve, but don't. In reality, the problems are largely of their own making. They are not hardworking; they make working hard. They are not helpful; they need help.
2. Note to controlling people: no one enjoys being around you. Your behaviour is caustic. You monopolize conversations by spewing forth information that reasonable people understand as an attempt to gain acceptance at the cost of a real exchange of experiences.
3. Because "self-identified Type-A" people are largely preoccupied with their own success practically at all costs, lest they have a mental or emotional breakdown should they fail to achieve nothing less than an A+, they should not be surprised when the rest of the world avoids them like the plague.
4. Casual conversation for controlling people is another opportunity to prove that a little learning is a dangerous thing. Just because they are slaves to their own form of perfectionism does not mean the rest of us must be their slaves, too. True geniuses have nothing to prove. Geniuses and virtuosos - masters of a given discipline - have supple minds that inspire awe.
5. In their attempts to be big minded, i.e., an expert, the "self-identified Type-A" person ends up more smallminded than the worst bigot, and more damaging. Someone who manages to have a personal relationship with a controlling person is nothing short of a saint.
6. People who weaponize their foibles are bullies, plain and simple. By contrast, normal people can laugh at their foibles and invite others to enjoy their minor character flaws. They have no expectation that the world revolves around their agenda because their agenda is flexible enough to accommodate other people who have something useful to say and deserve equal "air time".

When someone in all seriousness states they have a condition that causes others to suffer needlessly, what makes them think the rest of the world is obliged to adapt to their problems? What makes their issue any more important than someone whose condition is equally traumatic or even far more traumatic?

Neurofibromatoses are a group of genetic disorders that cause tumors to form on nerve tissue. These tumors can develop anywhere in the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord and nerves. There are three types of neurofibromatosis: neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1), neurofibromatosis 2 (NF2) and schwannomatosis. NF1 is usually diagnosed in childhood, while NF2 and schwannomatosis are usually diagnosed in early adulthood.

The tumors in these disorders are usually noncancerous (benign), but sometimes can become cancerous (malignant). Symptoms are often mild. However, complications of neurofibromatosis can include hearing loss, learning impairment, heart and blood vessel (cardiovascular) problems, loss of vision, and severe pain.

Push Back

Too often people who are trying to live their lives in harmony with others while trying their level best to make a living, support a family and perhaps find a little free time for themselves, run into people who are contentious and whose behaviour is demeaning toward others. We've seen - are seeing - too much of it. If people's comments attached to news reports and social media sites mean anything, it's that people of goodwill are wearied by the assaults of aggressive controlling pugilists.

That people are becoming more aggressive about justifying their foibles and imposing their expectation of acceptance is an expected outcome in a society that raises faux-victims to the status of heroes. Welcome to the social(ist) media generation and the new McCarthyism.

Beware! If you choose to publicly challenge a self identifying "Type-A" about their self-aggrandizing showboating, especially if you are a teacher or nurse or ..., be forewarned. If your "Type-A" nemesis is part of a victim-circle, you may very well be ganged-up on and subject to a vast and tedious email assault, or a public lynching on social media, or a departmental review rife with false allegations sewn together with gossip, innuendo and... . Just ask the multitude of public personalities who have had to endure a trial-by-mob execution by self righteous narcissists what it's like to be targeted for cancellation.