Creative Maladjustment III: Getting to the Point, Maybe

The phrase “creative maladjustment” originated with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; it’s a rhetorical trope he used at the end of many of his speeches. “We all want to live the well-adjusted life in order to avoid neurotic personalities,” he said in 1963, “but there are some things within our social order to which I am proud to be maladjusted, and to which I call all men of good will to be maladjusted until the good society is realized. I must confess that I will never adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I will never become adjusted to religious bigotry. I will never adjust myself to economic conditions that take necessities from the many and give luxuries to the few… I never intend to adjust to the madness of militarism.” In fact, he concludes, “It may well be the greatest need of the hour, the greatest need of our world, to have more maladjustment. This is why I am calling for the immediate formation of a new organization, the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment.”

For my part I must confess that I was surprised – and delighted – to hear Dr. King’s solemn, sonorous voice throw out this rather goofy idea. Unfortunately, nobody took him up on it, or at least no one I’ve been able to find. There’s a mental health advocacy group called MindFreedom that is using the idea of creative maladjustment to challenge the world’s definition of “normal,” but I don't think that’s really what Dr. King was getting at.

What was he getting at, though? Alas, he wasn’t terribly specific. He did cite some examples: Abraham Lincoln, “who had the vision to see that this nation could not exist half-slave and half-free.” Thomas Jefferson, “who in the midst of an age amazingly adjusted to slavery cried, ‘All men are created equal.’” And of course Jesus, “who could stand amid the formidable military machinery of the Roman Empire, to say, ‘He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword.’” All people who were able to see through the conventional insanities of their times and transcend them, to hold on to the truth in their hearts and push to make it real.

(I suppose it’s a cheap shot to point out that Thomas Jefferson had adjusted to slavery well enough to actually own several hundred human beings himself. But maybe there’s value in acknowledging that contradiction, the complexity of any life that changed the world as much as Jefferson’s. Otherwise King’s list is too intimidating, a pantheon of superheroes I can't imagine joining, myself. It won’t help if we think we have to be Abraham Lincoln or Nelson Mandela -- or Jesus, for Christ’s sake -- to enroll in the IAACM.)

In his speeches Dr. King focused on the maladjustment side, but he didn’t elaborate on the creative angle much -- and that’s kind of where I want to go with this manifesto. Frankly, I feel like I’ve got a handle on maladjustment; I have no problem seeing the many, many ways our society is deeply and chronically screwed up. And even though I’ve been known to forget for a minute that there’s a war on, or let Bill & Ted’s sexism slide, or offer a non-organic processed cheese food product to an innocent child, or blow a wad of money on a pair of Fluevogs instead of sending it to Myanmar… I don’t think I’m in all that much danger of getting acclimated to the world’s injustices. I realize it’s a little risky for a white middle-class hippie chick like me to say that. But I think for me the greater danger is that I’ll be so overwhelmed and depressed by the world's injustices that I’ll give up.

Besides, my goal here is not to be perpetually revolted and appalled by the world around me, tempting though that may be. (And sometimes it is tempting – we all know people who thrive on righteous outrage, seeming to relish each new example of our civilization’s decline & fall.) And it’s not enough to simply alternate periods of fiercely fighting evil with periods of lying on a beach somewhere recharging my batteries.

No, I’m looking to bridge the gap between fighting and recharging, engagement and detachment, creativity and maladjustment. E. B. White once described Henry David Thoreau as “a man torn by two powerful and opposing drives -- the desire to enjoy the world, and the urge to set the world straight.” He went on to offer up the best definition of creative maladjustment I’ve come across yet: “One cannot join these two successfully, but sometimes, in rare cases, something good or even great results from the attempt of the tormented spirit to reconcile them." Nice, huh? (Except for maybe the tormented part.)

Injecting creativity into our maladjustment means finding imaginative, startling ways to illuminate and untangle the world’s problems. The other sense of the word “creative” applies as well: I want to find a way to use my all-too-powerful outrage and sorrow to create something -- the world I want to live in, ideally.

I think that’s what I mean by Creative Maladjustment (apologies to Dr. King if this isn't what he had in mind when he coined the phrase). But I’m still not sure what exactly how to go about doing it. What would it look like to reconcile Thoreau's powerful and opposing drives? Maybe some examples would help.

Coming soon, Part IV: Jujitsu & Beautiful Tools.

PS: You can start at Part I if you're feeling lost...