Note: This is another article on politics from my liberal perspective. If you lean to the right, you might wish to skip this one…. MM
– – – – –
About 1 percent of the people in the world are psychopaths. Grandiose sense of self-worth… no feelings of remorse or shame… no sense of responsibility for their actions… cold-bloodedness in relationships… They can lie, cheat, steal, even kill… and remain composed and straight-faced afterwards.
A Canadian psychologist named Robert Hare has studied psychopaths since the 1970s and developed the consummate test to determine the degree of a person’s psychopathic tendencies.
Read more about the psychopath test
Hare has found that most mass murderers and serial rapists are psychopaths, as are 20 percent of the people in prisons. Still, it’s just a small percentage of psychopaths who become Hannibal Lecters. Most of them learn how to integrate into society… usually as charming predators and con-men. They’ll enter one relationship, take what they can, and move onto the next, without forming any emotional bonds. They’ll become stockbrokers, high-pressure salesmen, politicians, aggressive lawyers, and corporate executives, garnering wealth and power at other people’s expense. People who prevail in highly competitive work environments are more likely than the norm to be psychopaths. Studies suggest, for example, that 4 percent of corporate executives are psychopathic.
Psychopaths know how to manipulate the system. At one crime scene, a footprint perfectly matched that of a known felon who lived nearby. When asked if he’d committed the crime, he denied it. When told he’d left a footprint, he said, “No, that’s not my foot.” Psychopaths will deny reality until victims and interrogators nearly have a nervous breakdown… at which point the psychopath informs them they’re delusional and mentally unstable. They often tell so many lies that they blatantly contradict themselves… and only then does the ugly truth starts to become apparent.
They don’t respond to interrogations the way normal people do. Several years ago, police in Seattle arrested a man for two murders but suspected him in others. Trying to get a confession, they urged him, “Think how much better you’ll feel, think of the families left behind….” to no avail. The murderer showed no reaction and offered nothing. Then, employing Robert Hare’s knowledge of psychopaths, they tried a different approach. “So you murdered a couple of prostitutes. That’s little league next to the likes of Bundy and Gacy….” Immediately the psychopathic prisoner began boasting about all of his murders.
Which brings us to Barack Obama, who’s spent three years as US President trying to bring unity to the sharply divided Congress. Every step of the way his efforts have been halted by far-right Senators who attack every conciliatory effort with the same response: “No!”
In his recent mailing to supporters he writes, “I still believe that what draws us together as Americans is stronger than what drives us apart… that the solutions are within our grasp, that we can work together to achieve them.”
Well, after watching US politics closely for three years, I believe differently. We (the left and the right… the liberals and conservatives here in the States) can’t work together. The far right political element in the US today has become a collective psychopath. It has no regard for the well-being of the people and is concerned only with self-interests and the interests of the wealthy Americans and corporations who pay them and whom they’ve come to represent. The Bush-Cheney regime (2001-2008) established a psychopathic political tone of lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, fear-mongering, war-mongering, and character assassination for conservative leadership, and the right wing has conducted its business along similar, only slightly toned-down lines ever since … and they keep a straight face through it all.
For Mr Obama to appeal to the conscience and scruples of the far right will do nothing to bring the unity this country needs. As a collective psychopath, the neo-conservatives have no conscience or scruples. They put on a façade of moral integrity and use words that mimic good will, but their policies and votes indicate clearly that they have no concern whatsoever in the welfare of anyone but rich people and fetuses… and concern for the latter is clearly a false one used only to garner conservative Christian votes. (They’ve even turned the word “welfare” into a stigma, as though helping the needy is a travesty.) And through it all, they deny the fact that their policies worsen the lives of the children, the elderly, and the poor.
I think it’s time for Mr Obama and liberal leaders here in the States to try a different approach. Don’t appeal to neoconservative leaders’ sense of good will, which they lack. Get them to boast about the social carnage caused by their psychopathic policies—Congressional deadlock, class split, mounting desperation among the poor, failing schools, the worst health-care system in the modernized world, hogs-at-the-trough economics, growing ranks of homeless and jobless….
Don’t implore Tea-Partiers and other far-right conservatives to think about the needy or about political unity—they couldn’t care less about the needy or unity. Instead, goad them into bragging about their “successes”… and watch the evidence and the contradictions… and the ugly truth unfold.
–
Other posts on health and well-being:
Meditation & Prayer: Heart meditation – Meditation; ticket to paradise – Prayer; another ticket – Tapping on Heaven’s door – The answer to everything
Exercise: Some great exercises – Mantric exercises
Spiritual Growth: Embrace the divine; it’s where we shine – Go to the light – Healing and the human spirit – Love and good will… but what about trust? – The carnal line between noble and savage – An apology can lift the spirit – Being a noble force
Self-Awareness: Are you an extrovert or an introvert? – Know Heaven – Know thyself
Addiction & Mental Illness: Nonfunctioning alcoholism – Addiction – Mental illness: barriers lost – Psychopaths
Noble Savage World 
Mr Macy
And what about the far left. They are even more of a psychopath mentality. They are much worse. These people want to see this great nation destroyed as we know it.
We are still the most giving nation in the world to our fellow men. I am a spiritual believer but God wants us all to help ourselves first. When we have helped ourselves succeed we can help others. That is where the liberals don’t see. I know many conservatives who are always helping those less fortunate in our community.
ROB
Hi Rob,
Thanks for not ‘skipping’ this post. I appreciate your reply immensely. When laying our feelings on the line like this (yours and mine) I think there’s a better chance of finding common ground. It’s a rigid holding-on to hostilities (like what’s happening in Congress) that makes things inevitably get worse.
I agree with most of what you say in the second paragraph. Yes, the US is the most giving nation… even today, when our economy is in turmoil. Yes, even on airplanes we’re told that when the oxygen masks come down, we put on our own masks before putting them on the kids… if we don’t take care of our own needs first, we can’t help others. (Most liberals do understand that, I believe, which is the only comment in that paragraph I’d argue with.) And yes, I also know many conservatives who help the less fortunate. My brother and sister-in-law, Southern Baptists on the far right politically, are like that… very loving people who give a lot of themselves to their church and their family. I also think of that fantastic movie, “The Blind Side,” in which Sandra Bullock’s character, a conservative southern mom, more or less adopts the gentle giant Michael Oher, whose ruthless ghetto upbringing and severe poverty would be certain death for any possible college football dreams, if not for the intervention and heart of the venerable Mrs Touhy. A wonderful film showing the wonderful side of humanity.
There’s a side of human nature that’s empathetic and generous, compelling us to give of ourselves for the well-being of others… what I call the noble side. There has to be a part of government that embodies that noble element of humanity, to prevent society from decaying to savagery.
Most of the good, noble people in the world (like Mrs Touhy or my brother), working independently to help those around them, would give to their families, their friends, their churches, and maybe a charity or two… but that would not solve all the problems of the swelling ranks of homeless, nameless, penniless people in society. It takes someone with a clearer overall picture of the shelters, the ghettos, the unemployed, the children, and the elderly (which in this case is government) to solve the problem. There has to be a segment of government that embodies the noble side.
That noble element of human nature is missing in the psychopath, who has no concern whatsoever about the people around him. And while most conservatives and most liberals have that noble side within them, the far-right conservative politics in the US today has purged it. It has zero concern for those in need. It is, essentially, psychopathic.
I wouldn’t use the word “psycopathic” to describe the far left, as I do for the far right. I think “mollycoddling” or “spoiling” might more appropriately sum up the far left. And I do agree with you that too much of that can also ruin a country. It’s the moderate elements of the left and right political parties who should come together at this time to heal society… but that’s not happening.
In the bigger picture, the noble side is necessary in bringing peace and order to society… but it isn’t the final answer. Humanity has always tended to grow (in population and self-enrichment) beyond the limits imposed by the environment, and when that happens there are serious problems (overpopulation, famine, economic depression, war…) that can no longer be solved by noble behavior. When there are simply too many mouths to feed, it takes more than noble thinking to solve the problem.
Anyway, I believe that if we Americans were to take our money out of defense spending and put it into social programs to help the poor and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure (as many liberals would like to see happen), we might alleviate a lot of suffering right away, but it would lead to bigger problems down the road. For one thing, it would give license to poor people (and to middle class and rich people too) to have more kids who would put an even bigger strain on the economy in the future. Social programs do help provide stability when times are tough, but if left alone they can cause even bigger problems by enabling the problem… by spoiling people. I see that.
That’s why I say often that something like the “Vitality Ratio” would have to be adopted to keep a country’s needs in line with available resources. It would have to replace the voodoo growth economics / capitalist economy we have today. It would also have to replace the socialist and autocratic economies elsewhere. Without something like the Vitality Ratio, the far right in this country will become more psychopathic, the left will rev up its mollycoddling, and the country will suffer ever greater chaos, suffering, and injustice.
Click to access VitalityRatioUS20100094672.pdf
If everyone’s noble side were in the driver’s seat, and everyone’s savage side was just an annoying little voice coming from the back… and if something like the Vitality Ratio were in place to ensure economic stability, then I believe we’d see both psychopathy and mollycoddling disappear, and humanity would run smoothly. Until then, as long as we let our savage side run the show, I believe that psychopaths pose a greater immediate threat to the world in general, and to our country in particular, than do the mollycoddlers and spoilers. But that’s just my opinion. There are definitely strengths and weaknesses on both sides of the aisle.
Anyway, again… thank you VERY much for commenting on this!
Mark
Spot on Mark. I could not have put it better myself…. politics is a sick game of pretend at the best of times but when the self interested psychopaths enter the game (on either side) it is only a matter of time until humanity is served up as mince meat for the conveyer belts of war and welfare is give the big farewell… As an Australian with relieves in the United States I am sincerely sorry to see the situation as our countries slide towards fascism but that’s what you are going to get if we don’t stand up for our rights we can kiss our freedom goodbye. Much love and respect Bill Hodge
Thanks for the comments, Bill.
Not an easy life, Earth!
What I gather from comments from our ethereal friends over the years (through ITC) it’s important to keep a positive mind-set, but at the same time to be aware of what’s going on in the world and to take a stand against wrong-doing.
Not always easy to sustain a light vibration for people committed to make the world better in troubled times…
Kindred spirits make the journey easier,
Mark