From: intraphase@gmail.com   
      
   Is There A Way To Prevent Psychopaths From Getting Into Positions Of Power?   
      
   Saturday, Jan 08, 2022 - 12:00 AM   
   Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,   
      
   Despite a growing resurgence of interest in the science and psychology of   
   narcissistic sociopaths and psychopaths it seems as though society today has   
   lost track of how these people can sabotage the core fabric of a civilization   
   or nation. It is very    
   easy to hyper-focus on collectivist ideologies as the source of our problems   
   and forget that these ideologies do not function in a vacuum; they cannot   
   wreak havoc by themselves, they need psychopathic people directing them to do   
   real damage.   
      
   There is something about collectivism that lends itself to projection and   
   hypocrisy (collectivism is organization by FORCE instead of being voluntary).   
   I suppose when your political ideology becomes your religion it’s easy to   
   turn into a zealot. And    
   while zealots find power in their single-mindedness and their cultism they   
   also tend to lack any self-awareness. They literally go insane with devotion   
   to their cause to the point that they lose track of whether or not their cause   
   is fair and just. Their    
   behavior becomes increasingly erratic and disjointed and every person they run   
   into that does not share their views is immediately seen as a heretical enemy   
   that needs to be exposed or destroyed.   
      
   To outsiders looking in, zealots are an endless source of comedy. You can’t   
   help but laugh because their ticks and cricks and outbursts are nonsensical   
   and absurd (just check out “Libs Of Tik Tok” for a mountain of examples).   
   As long as they don’   
   t have any real power these people act as a reminder of what happens when   
   human beings abandon reason for madness. They can be frightening but they   
   serve the purposes of entertainment as well as keeping the rest of us   
   grounded. When they do gain power,    
   however, that’s when things stop being funny.   
      
   Civilizations throughout history have consistently dealt with the problem of   
   zealots, but the greater threat is the existence of narcissists and   
   psychopaths sneaking into positions of authority and encouraging zealotry   
   among the masses. Generally,    
   psychopaths are seen as an anomaly which is quickly identified and shunned in   
   order to prevent them from climbing too high up the ladder of social   
   influence. The problem is they are not as rare as one might hope and many of   
   them have the ability to hide    
   among the herd.   
      
   Around 1% of any given population is made up of psychopaths while another 1%   
   are sociopaths. Around 5% of people are identified as having narcissistic   
   traits. Narcissists are self absorbed and view themselves as superior to   
   everyone else – They believe    
   they are entitled to adoration and authority. Sociopaths have an inability to   
   feel empathy for others and this makes them impractical as leaders.   
   Psychopaths also exhibit a lack of empathy but also have a propensity for   
   emotional or physical violence.    
   They take joy in the suffering of others and perpetrate a large number of   
   violent crimes.   
      
   Even though psychopaths are 1% of the population, they make up 15% to 25% of   
   those incarcerated in prisons. The drag they exert on society cannot be   
   overstated.   
      
   There is definitely some overlap among the various types, but in general close   
   to 10% of human beings exhibit dangerous and mostly inherent psychological   
   malfunctions that are often not treatable. Think about that for a moment –   
   10 out of every 100    
   people are ticking time bombs waiting to make life miserable for the rest of   
   us.   
      
   To be sure, some of them are still able to function in society. Sociopaths in   
   particular can become valuable in fields where less empathy is required in   
   order to accomplish certain tasks. They are particularly well suited as   
   surgeons, EMTs, soldiers,    
   firefighters, and any other job where seeing people in pain is not going to   
   stop them from saving lives. They don’t necessarily take joy in seeing   
   others harmed, but they aren’t emotionally phased by it either. As long as   
   they are never allowed into    
   positions of influence over large groups of people they can serve some good   
   for the public.   
      
   History shows us that vetting and preventing psychologically broken   
   individuals from slipping into institutions that offer power is not so easy.   
   In fact, many monarchies and empires were built on systems that allowed   
   psychopaths and narcissists to    
   flourish because they relied on genetic succession. If a monarch had a son   
   that was predisposed to psychopathy it did not matter, that crazed prince   
   would one day become a king and there was little that could be done about it.   
   There was no vetting    
   process. Also, many such traits are passed on genetically, which means a power   
   structure built on heredity could become progressively more destructive as   
   psychopaths in royalty intermarry. This would help explain why psychopathic   
   behavior is over-   
   represented among monarchs of the past.   
      
   The creation of democracy and democratic republics was in part designed to   
   help weed out aberrant individuals by using open elections and the voting   
   process. In other words, let the people scrutinize candidates and remove the   
   crazies from circles of    
   power. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work too well if ALL the candidates are   
   psychopaths and the public has no real choice. By extension, psychopaths have   
   also found ways to circumvent the political process and control it without   
   directly participating    
   in it.   
      
   The corporate world and financial institutions allow psychopaths to influence   
   politics from behind the curtain, buying off candidates and their loyalty or   
   vetting candidates and ONLY allowing those with similar sociopathic,   
   narcissistic and psychopathic    
   habits through the selection process and into the political arena.   
      
   In tribal societies and in smaller low-tech societies the ability to identify   
   and root out psychologically broken individuals and prevent them from becoming   
   leaders was easier. In the midst of vast empires and technocracy it is much   
   simpler for    
   psychopaths to hide among normal people and blend in. I usually compare   
   invasive psychopaths to mythological stories of vampires for this reason. I   
   really can’t think of a better analogy. They insinuate themselves into a   
   population, take up positions    
   of influence which protect them from suspicion and then systematically bleed   
   the town dry. This is what they do. It is in their nature and they cannot be   
   fixed, they can only be removed as a parasite is removed from a host.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)