Philosophy and Principles
"There are some things in our world to which I'm proud to be maladjusted."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Who are the Creatively Maladjusted?
• Critical thinkers: The creatively maladjusted focus on a problematic area of society (something to which people of good will simply can’t be adjusted) with critical thought, examining the history of a bad idea, its branchings and consequences — the better to weed it out, roots and all.
• Architects of alternatives: Not merely content with tearing down an existing structure, the creatively maladjusted offer alternatives and are willing to demonstrate those alternatives with good cheer and positivity in public places. They believe that loving and loud public action is the foundation of a true non-violent revolution.
• Believers in humanity: Most importantly of all, the creatively maladjusted resist the pressure to dehumanize any and all of their fellow men. They believe in the inherent uniqueness and worth of every individual and demonstrate this belief in every action they take.
Creative maladjustment is a natural human response to oppression, an organic and highly adaptable way to oppose injustice.
What are they creatively maladjusted to?
The Creatively Maladjusted are active on a variety of important societal issues, including:
• Racial equality • Religious tolerance • Economic fairness • Peace • Ecological sustainability and energy security • Individual liberty • Fighting psychiatric profiling and human rights abuses in the mental health system • Transparent and corruption-free government • Community and family values
The creatively maladjusted are incredibly diverse in the societal problems they aim to solve, but they are united in their opposition to the basis of all oppression: “man’s inhumanity to man.”
Tell us: What are YOU creatively maladjusted to?
International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment
MindFreedom International will steward an International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment [IAACM], with the goal of inspiring a diverse array of critical, intelligent, and creative maladjustments to societal problems. We envision an organized corps of “disciplined nonconformists” challenging the dehumanizing forces of oppression everywhere and refocusing our society on the humanity and positive potential of all its individual members. We invite human beings from around the world to exercise their own personal leadership in the IAACM, organically growing their own movements of maladjustment wherever they are.
Celebrating Creative Maladjustment
Creative Maladjustment Week: July 7 – July 14, 2013
For one week in July, we’re pulling together all available resources to truly celebrate the inspiring power of positive creative maladjustment!
We’ve planned themed days of the week that will focus the celebrations on different aspects of successful activism. Join us for:
Sunday (7/7): Day of Creativity
Monday (7/8): Day of Action & Movement
Tuesday (7/9): Day of Laughter and Joyful Noise
Wednesday (7/10): Day of Kindness
Thursday (7/11): Day of Self Care
Friday (7/12): Day of Community Care
Saturday (7/13): Legacy of Lunacy
For each of these days, we’ll be staging protests, events, and celebrations, and throughout the week, we’ll be honoring the creatively maladjusted amongst us, giving awards to inspiring activists from around the world.
REMEMBER: You can celebrate Creative Maldjustment Week wherever you are. Wherever there are folks who are not afraid to stand up, Boycott Normality, and unite with their fellow human beings against oppression and injustice. We create the rules, we can change them!
Let’s make this an annual event, a yearly opportunity for activists worldwide to re-dedicate themselves to the eternal struggle against dehumanization, “man’s inhumanity to man.”
Will you join us?
There are some things in our nation and in our world to which I’m proud to be maladjusted… I never intend to adjust myself to segregation and discrimination. I never intend to become adjusted to religious bigotry. I never intend to adjust myself to economic conditions that will take necessities from the many to give luxuries to the few, and leave millions of people perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of prosperity. I never intend to adjust myself to the madness of militarism, and to the self-defeating effects of physical violence…
And I call upon you to be maladjusted to these things until the good society is realized…
Yes, I must confess that I believe firmly that our world is in dire need of a new organization – the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment…Through such maladjustment we will be able to emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, into the bright and glittering daybreak of freedom and justice.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. “Don’t Sleep Through The Revolution,” speech delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Association General Assembly in Hollywood, Florida (May 18, 1966)
