Quote:
Originally Posted by OrangeBlossomBaby
First of all - Mark doesn't have a "severe" medical or mental condition. I don't know if he's autistic or not, I just know he's on the spectrum somewhere, and he's high functioning.
Second - his shrieks are not random. He does it to the beat of the music at certain intervals, and only during certain songs, in certain spots of the songs. Usually it's not a shriek, it's a count: "THREE TWO ONE!".
Third - He is intelligent, able to hold his own in a conversation, waxes poetic on occasion, is a spiritual person, gentle and seems to be incapable of expressing anger toward anyone. I haven't tested that but I've watched a few people play the passive-aggressive "Oh look Marge, it's THAT GUY AGAIN" game in close proximity to him and he just accepts it with a gracious smile. There are some people here who would take those quips as challenges and become confrontational about it but he never takes the bait, so far as I've experienced.
Fourth - he's not inconspicuous, I don't know why BrianL99 came up with that claim that anyone here was saying he is inconspicuous. He's clearly conspicuous - he's a tall pale bald white guy wearing a long-sleeved Henley shirt, who smells like a Deadhead, sweating like a dyslexic on Countdown, wielding a conductor's baton and poking it up into the sky or spinning and dancing around the dance area.
He's only not innocuous to people who are easily offended by anyone who isn't perfect.
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Years ago, I was told he had autism by a woman serving drinks in one of the huts. She gave me quite a long story about how long she has known him and had witnessed outbursts and unusual repetitive behavior. (usually associated with unexpected loud noises and music) Other than noise, she said he is harmless. If that information is incorrect, I stand corrected. Did not seem like the woman was someone who liked to gossip. Came off as someone who was concerned for another.
Autistic people are extremely intelligent and able to function. They repeat a behavior over and over because they cannot get it out of their head. You said it yourself in your post. People try to get him to stop but he just smiles at them. That is the nature of the disease. He is unable to control his behavior impulse. And, can not recognize that his behavior is odd or extreme. Music and/or noise sets his brain off. A normal person would stop the behavior when hundreds of people have asked him to do so.
This was the point of my post. Don't just discard someone and make requests to have them banned from the square without knowing about them first. I used the words severe mental problems because that is how it was relayed to me. She used the words severe autism.