I have been going through my old entries again recently, just to double check that I put all the missing links back in place. This morning, I came across some of the old entries I wrote about Simon Stevens around ten years ago. You may remember, back then I had major disagreements with the guy: he was writing all sorts of stuff, in the Huffington Post and other places, which I saw as very problematic. Yet, looking back over it, I must admit that what he was saying isn’t too far from some of the positions I now hold. For example, here Stevens wrote “Nowadays, everyone seems to be happy to be labelled disabled as they list their many impairments, as having one impairment is never enough these days. When I fought to be allowed to do things others assumed I  could not do, disability has now been reversed.”

Broadly speaking, he seems to be writing about what I call Cultural Intrusion, where people now seem very eager to define themselves as disabled for sociopolitical reasons when they previously might not have. Of course, rereading his articles, there is a lot I still disagree with Simon Stevens on – he still seems annoyingly self-important, for one – but in retrospect I have to admit he may have been on to something. One way or another, having a disability is becoming more politically fashionable, so what people like Simon and myself were once encouraged to overcome in order to fit in with our able-bodied peers is now increasingly being flaunted.

Even so, this is all ultimately moot: I’m not sure when or why, but I have been told that Simon Stevens died recently. I wrote this entry because I felt that I needed to get it off my chest.