Political Ponerology page
DO PSYCHOPATHS RULE THE
WORLD?
Roman Emperor Caligula
Throughout history, psychopaths,
sociopaths, narcissists, and assorted antisocial-personality-disordered
individuals have ruled societies.
Psychopaths and sociopaths often
exhibit glibness and superficial charm, have a grandiose sense
of self-worth, are pathological liars, display extreme narcissism,
are deceitful, cunning and manipulative, exhibit a lack of remorse
or guilt, show a callous disregard for the feelings of others,
have no conscience, lack empathy, and fail to accept responsibility
for their actions.
In a competitive world, the people who act immorally, who have
no regard for truth, are going to have an advantage over those
who play by the rules. The result is that those who achieve positions
of power will be the most ruthless, the most sociopathic, the
ones without conscience.
In societies run by psychopaths, ambitious individuals and
sycophants, who are not clinically psychopathic, are induced to
model themselves after powerful psychopaths in order to achieve
power. The result: psychopaths breed more psychopaths.
When our ruling class - corporate leaders, bankers, academics,
generals, media executives, Senators and Congressmen and even
Presidents - are liars and deceivers, and are ruthless, callous
manipulators who have no regard for truth or other people, the
entire fabric of society is twisted in their image, and psychopathic
behavior becomes the norm.
Our world is characterized by: permanent war, targeted assassinations,
torture, cruise missiles, drones, landmines and cluster bombs,
full-spectrum dominance, state terrorism, humanitarian interventions,
enemy combatants, shock and awe, black sites, sanctions, structural
adjustment, austerity, poverty, surveillance, fascism, authoritarianism
and dictatorship, genetically-engineered food, napalm, Agent Orange
and depleted uranium, plausible deniability, three-strikes and
maximum-security, corporate personhood and golden parachutes,
plutocrats and oligarchs, corruption and profiteering, bank bail-outs
and bail-ins, too-big-to-fail, fracking, mountain-top removal
and tar sands, Hiroshima and Fukashima, drug trafficking, money
laundering, the New World Order, the banality of evil.
It is clear that this world has not been built by caring human
beings, but has been constructed and is run by powerful hallow
soulless individuals.
And, despite the violence, suffering and chaos they have caused,
we allow them to remain at the top, and in control.
BOOKS
the seminal book about political
psychopathy
ARTICLES
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