It's politically risky to raise taxes. It's politically risky to cut spending. The one thing that isn't politically risky to do is go deeper and deeper into debt. Whatever agreement evolves or devolves out of congress it will likely allow Republicans to satisfy their base by cutting spending a little, allow Democrats to satisfy their base by raising taxes a little, and kick the ball down the road by going deeper into debt.
The real subject of this is not Medicare or the Stimulus plan-- it's long term thinking.
We did not suddenly go to sleep and then wake up the next day with a political class that acted this way. Or with CEO's that act this way. The erosion of long term thinking is progressive. It begins slowly before becoming pervasive.
Lack of long term thinking manifests itself as a lack of responsibility. The difference is not in intelligence. Very intelligent people show no grasp of responsibility and no understanding of consequences. 'Stupid' behavior by intelligent people is often a symptom of that. Sociopaths, who often have very high IQ's, yet a poor understanding of consequences, are at the farthest limit of that category.
What explains this behavior? Socialization and empathy. Sociopaths are often quite bright, but it is the company of other people that makes us fully human. Sociopaths are too detached from other people to be able to rationally calculate long term consequences in a social context. They understand rules in an abstract fashion, but they don't internalize them. Because rules are socially internalized and given priority as higher truths over personal feelings only by an ego that has learned it is not master of the universe. A sociopath may be a physics professor, but if an impulse pushes him into a situation where the laws of physics are in his way, then they will be less valid to him than that impulse. The same goes for mathematics. The sociopath is irresponsibility taken to the extreme, but there is a long gradation on the way there.
What does a country run by sociopaths look like? It looks a lot like our own actually. Lots of short term fixes. Lots of 'keep this thing running' pragmatism. Short attention spans. No sense of responsibility. And no thought for the future.
This is the problem with filling a cabinet full of bright people who don't understand responsibility or long term thinking. While their intelligence should allow them to solve most problems, the situations they are confronted with are social, not abstract. And they lack empathy for the people involved, any sense of them as individuals, and any real understanding that they will also have to live with the long term consequences of those decisions.
To the Sociopath, most situations come down to, "How Do I Make Person X Do What I Want." This sounds a lot like the Cass Sunstein theory of 'Nudges'. The government acting as manipulator getting people to do what they're being told, while making them think it's their own idea is exactly what a sociopath would think of as a brilliant solution. It is a perfect illustration of a mind that is intellectually aware that people are individuals, but does not understand or empathize with it as a gut level.
Of course we're not actually a country run by sociopaths. For the most part. But it is run by men and women who display similar traits and blind spots.
Let's take a brief look at some of the behaviors and attributes used to identify a sociopath.
Put bluntly, the behaviors which are common to politicians are also common to sociopaths. But the worst of these is irresponsibility. Without responsibility, there is no self-correcting mechanism. The experience of negative consequences does not lead to avoidance of the same behavior.
For most people the sociopath is a tiger in the forest. But it's a miscategorization. There are extreme cases, but there are also entire societies where the general population acts and thinks this way. Where empathy is an alien notion, where doing whatever you please if you think you can get away with it is the norm, and where no one thinks in the long term. And we are slowly headed that way.
In the late 20th century, an economic system built on hard work and inventiveness, was replaced with one built on temporary bubbles and salesmanship. A culture with thousands of years of moral and intellectual tradition, was forced to make way for one built on egotism and instant impulse satiation. A nation of few laws and many mores, was replaced with a nation of a million laws and few mores. Which economic system and culture looks more like a sociopath habitat, the one we had before or the one we have now?
That isn't to say that we are sociopaths-- but our political and economic systems, and culture are being transformed to accommodate them.
The medically diagnosed sociopath who lacks empathy and only manipulates people represents an extreme. But a society becomes untethered from its codes, it loses the ability to meaningfully socialize its own children. The breakdown of moral codes eventually leads to a breakdown in empathy. In a multicultural society where there are fewer kinship ties, this is even more devastating.
Feelings of hollowness abound. Anhedonia becomes a common complaint. Many people feel that they should be helping others, but they're not sure how to go about it. A vague sense of guilt drifts over them. Unlike a sociopath, they experience the detachment, but their attempts to compensate for it by getting beyond their egos and meaningfully connecting with others is limited by a larger social breakdown.
Worsening symptoms leave them even more detached. They use "I" often. Everything that happens is processed through their own experience. Everything becomes about themselves. Celebrity becomes a consuming craze. They feel driven to be witnessed by other people, otherwise they feel unreal. The truth becomes a mutable thing to them. They recreate it at every turn and forget that they have done it. Nothing is their fault anymore. Nothing at all.
Finally there is a stage so near that of the sociopath that it hardly makes any difference anymore. Long term consequences vanish. Everything takes place in the present. Reality is infinitely mutable. They have no patience for obstacles. Life to them is a game. And they are determined to win it. The answers to everything seem clear, and do not require any reality testing. Everything either exists to accommodate them, or it shouldn't be allowed to exist at all.
This a progression of detachment. It is what happens when a culture begins to come apart. And it's all around us. It is why we lack leadership so badly. An imploding culture adamantly hates and opposes the virtues of leadership. When it sees them, it tries to destroy them. True leadership derives from understanding people and relying on them to respond to the implicit code by which the leader acts. The leadership of a government of sociopaths on the other hand is impulsive, it prides itself on juggling rules to avoid being caught by them. It thinks that principles and those who hold them are dangerous. And it views long term thinking as an obstacle in the way of its bright and beautiful plans.
The real subject of this is not Medicare or the Stimulus plan-- it's long term thinking.
We did not suddenly go to sleep and then wake up the next day with a political class that acted this way. Or with CEO's that act this way. The erosion of long term thinking is progressive. It begins slowly before becoming pervasive.Lack of long term thinking manifests itself as a lack of responsibility. The difference is not in intelligence. Very intelligent people show no grasp of responsibility and no understanding of consequences. 'Stupid' behavior by intelligent people is often a symptom of that. Sociopaths, who often have very high IQ's, yet a poor understanding of consequences, are at the farthest limit of that category.
What explains this behavior? Socialization and empathy. Sociopaths are often quite bright, but it is the company of other people that makes us fully human. Sociopaths are too detached from other people to be able to rationally calculate long term consequences in a social context. They understand rules in an abstract fashion, but they don't internalize them. Because rules are socially internalized and given priority as higher truths over personal feelings only by an ego that has learned it is not master of the universe. A sociopath may be a physics professor, but if an impulse pushes him into a situation where the laws of physics are in his way, then they will be less valid to him than that impulse. The same goes for mathematics. The sociopath is irresponsibility taken to the extreme, but there is a long gradation on the way there.
What does a country run by sociopaths look like? It looks a lot like our own actually. Lots of short term fixes. Lots of 'keep this thing running' pragmatism. Short attention spans. No sense of responsibility. And no thought for the future.
This is the problem with filling a cabinet full of bright people who don't understand responsibility or long term thinking. While their intelligence should allow them to solve most problems, the situations they are confronted with are social, not abstract. And they lack empathy for the people involved, any sense of them as individuals, and any real understanding that they will also have to live with the long term consequences of those decisions.
To the Sociopath, most situations come down to, "How Do I Make Person X Do What I Want." This sounds a lot like the Cass Sunstein theory of 'Nudges'. The government acting as manipulator getting people to do what they're being told, while making them think it's their own idea is exactly what a sociopath would think of as a brilliant solution. It is a perfect illustration of a mind that is intellectually aware that people are individuals, but does not understand or empathize with it as a gut level.
Of course we're not actually a country run by sociopaths. For the most part. But it is run by men and women who display similar traits and blind spots.
Let's take a brief look at some of the behaviors and attributes used to identify a sociopath.
Are they cavalier about the truth, and capable of telling lies to your face?
Have they no apparent sense of remorse, shame or guilt?
Is their charm superficial, and capable of being switched on to suit immediate ends?
Do they enjoy taking risks, and acting on reckless impulse?
Are they quick to blame others for their mistakes?
Do they have no qualms about sponging off others?
Are they sexually promiscuous?
Would you regard them as essentially irresponsible?
Put bluntly, the behaviors which are common to politicians are also common to sociopaths. But the worst of these is irresponsibility. Without responsibility, there is no self-correcting mechanism. The experience of negative consequences does not lead to avoidance of the same behavior.
For most people the sociopath is a tiger in the forest. But it's a miscategorization. There are extreme cases, but there are also entire societies where the general population acts and thinks this way. Where empathy is an alien notion, where doing whatever you please if you think you can get away with it is the norm, and where no one thinks in the long term. And we are slowly headed that way.
In the late 20th century, an economic system built on hard work and inventiveness, was replaced with one built on temporary bubbles and salesmanship. A culture with thousands of years of moral and intellectual tradition, was forced to make way for one built on egotism and instant impulse satiation. A nation of few laws and many mores, was replaced with a nation of a million laws and few mores. Which economic system and culture looks more like a sociopath habitat, the one we had before or the one we have now?
That isn't to say that we are sociopaths-- but our political and economic systems, and culture are being transformed to accommodate them.
The medically diagnosed sociopath who lacks empathy and only manipulates people represents an extreme. But a society becomes untethered from its codes, it loses the ability to meaningfully socialize its own children. The breakdown of moral codes eventually leads to a breakdown in empathy. In a multicultural society where there are fewer kinship ties, this is even more devastating.
Worsening symptoms leave them even more detached. They use "I" often. Everything that happens is processed through their own experience. Everything becomes about themselves. Celebrity becomes a consuming craze. They feel driven to be witnessed by other people, otherwise they feel unreal. The truth becomes a mutable thing to them. They recreate it at every turn and forget that they have done it. Nothing is their fault anymore. Nothing at all.
Finally there is a stage so near that of the sociopath that it hardly makes any difference anymore. Long term consequences vanish. Everything takes place in the present. Reality is infinitely mutable. They have no patience for obstacles. Life to them is a game. And they are determined to win it. The answers to everything seem clear, and do not require any reality testing. Everything either exists to accommodate them, or it shouldn't be allowed to exist at all.
This a progression of detachment. It is what happens when a culture begins to come apart. And it's all around us. It is why we lack leadership so badly. An imploding culture adamantly hates and opposes the virtues of leadership. When it sees them, it tries to destroy them. True leadership derives from understanding people and relying on them to respond to the implicit code by which the leader acts. The leadership of a government of sociopaths on the other hand is impulsive, it prides itself on juggling rules to avoid being caught by them. It thinks that principles and those who hold them are dangerous. And it views long term thinking as an obstacle in the way of its bright and beautiful plans.
Comments
Individuals with antisocial personality disorder may not be unaware of or dismissive of consequences, instead their intense reward-seeking motivation consumes their attention wholly until they fulfill their desire for reward.
ReplyDeleteThis is why no one should be allowed to campaign for any office.
Ronin 64
Another one, out of the park!
ReplyDeleteBut...
I must disagree -- these people (our Masters in Sodom-on-the-Potomac) *ARE* sociopaths!
Further, I think it's EXACTLY this which leads to their getting elected.
Sociopaths are MASTERS at knowing what to say to whom, and when. It all means NOTHING -- their victory in being re-elected it all that matters to them!
A good diagnosis, doc.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most disturbing is that a good part of the control mechanisms of the society -- the media, for example, and the government itself in some cases -- seem to be providing strong positive feedback to the irresponsibility you describe.
It was not for nought that once in the American republic the people had to elect their leaders and anyone who would put himself up for election would automatically be disqualified from election. This proves the founders's insight in the human mind to have been deep and their values stil to be true today. Realistically: How to restore the system? I fear only through violence and destruction rebuilding shall be possible. In a new civil war, which might be the only means since the group you mention in your article has placed itself beyond reasoning, the opponents shall be way further split than in the first one.
ReplyDeleteThe defining trait of the sociopath is that he sees others solely as means to his ends. He rejects the concepts of morality and moral agency. He will do whatever strikes him as pleasurable or profitable to himself, as long as any consequences seem either tolerable or displaceable onto others' backs.
ReplyDeleteThe sociopath who actively seeks power over others -- i.e., the political sociopath -- is incapable of seeing others as individuals. His thinking is in terms of "the masses." Given that a mass of anything has less identity than an individual specimen thereof -- yes, even to a sociopath -- the political sociopath approaches a state of solipsism in which there are no other independent actors in the universe. He thinks less of dealing with unpleasant consequences than the private sociopath: given that he alone has the capacity for self-willed action, he finds it hard to believe in them.
When a political sociopath is confronted by independent action from others, it upsets his worldview. That's not supposed to happen! Depending on the extent to which it crosscuts his agenda and the degree of his self-absorption, it might anger him greatly. Outbursts of such anger have the potential to be extremely destructive.
Among the great tasks of our day is learning how to identify the politically aspiring sociopath and neutralize him early in his career. As the sociopath must cultivate skill at deception to survive at all, this will be exceedingly difficult. Yet as the Obama Administration has demonstrated, the survival of the United States could well depend on it.
Excellent post.
ReplyDeleteSo ... my choices next election cycle will most likely be between Red Sociopath or Blue Sociopath.
Now that we've got the diagnosis, what's the treatment?
Dang. You nailed it, amigo. You just described 99.9% of tax-feeders. And their less-symptomatic supporters.
ReplyDeleteSo ... my choices next election cycle will most likely be between Red Sociopath or Blue Sociopath.
ReplyDeleteNow that we've got the diagnosis, what's the treatment?
Sarah Palin.
Excellent analysis...to offer one additional point regarding sociopaths, the indicators for this diagnosis also includes lack of conscience. In some sense, it begs the question which comes first; the chicken or the egg. Without a conscience, all other things follow.
ReplyDelete"Is their charm superficial, and capable of being switched on to suit immediate ends?"
ReplyDeleteSadly, that's where we get into trouble from a political standpoint. A smile, a handshake, and we're blown over. Niceness isn't a character trait, it's a tool. Sociopaths do indeed turn it on and off to suit their needs.
I'm sure some politicians would meet the DSM IV criteria being a socipath.
But the nature of the modern politico is to pursue power, and hold onto that power no matter what. Is the antidote to these grandstanding gladhanders the ancient Athenian way of choosing lots to see who gets to serve in public office? At least people would get the idea that no politician is irreplaceable or bigger than their position.
ReplyDeleteHow depressing.
ReplyDeleteI lay so much of our social breakdown at the feet of the teacher's unions. They have robbed our children of our great country's history and have taken down our guiding moral principles.
Without these foundations, they are prey to garbage like "hope and change"
What is amazing is that there's still over 60% of us that are sane.
MM
Muslims are excluded from Obamacare at everyone else's expense:
ReplyDeleteWord of the Day: Dhimmitude
Dhimmitude is the Muslim system of controlling non-Muslim populations conquered through jihad. Specifically, it is the TAXING of non-Muslims in exchange for tolerating their presence AND as a coercive means of converting conquered remnants to Islam.
ObamaCare allows the establishment of Dhimmitude and Sharia Muslim diktat in the United States . Muslims are specifically exempted from the government mandate to purchase insurance, and also from the penalty tax for being uninsured. Islam considers insurance to be "gambling", "risk-taking", and "usury" and is thus banned. Muslims are specifically granted exemption based on this.
How convenient. So I, as a Christian, will have crippling IRS liens placed against all of my assets, including real estate, cattle, and even accounts receivables, and will face hard prison time because I refuse to buy insurance or pay the penalty tax. Meanwhile, Louis Farrakhan will have no such penalty and will have 100% of his health needs paid for by the de facto government insurance. Non-Muslims will be paying a tax to subsidize Muslims. This is Dhimmitude.
@BTL31
ReplyDeleteSomehow I doubt Farrakhan would have much future in an Islamonazi state
unless he towed the standard Islamonazi line. At one point he declared that drinking beer was permissible, and I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be allowed in an islamonazi state.
I have nothing but despair and gloom running through my mind. We are falling apart and have lost the alchemy which was this great nation. I'm big into brass.
ReplyDeleteI guess I was to gloomy..huh?
ReplyDeleteit;s a fairly gloomy article
ReplyDeleteI was struck by another "chicken or egg" issue concerning the breakdown of moral codes. Yes, it leads to a lack of empathy, but I believe individuals with a lack of empathy are responsible for the breakdown of moral codes. Consider all of the pedophiles - such as those who inhabit the North American Man_Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) - who want to have pedophilia removed from the DSM manual of psychological disorders, making it "normal". People such as Pete Singer, William Jefferson Clinton, and many, many others who obviously haven't an empathic bone in their body, or they could never prey upon children the way they do.
ReplyDeleteI am not religious, and am not a Christian, but the Judeo-Christian moral code served Western Civilization well for much of the past two thousand years, and was the basis for the kind of government our country was founded upon. The Left has _deliberately_ been undermining and deconstructing this moral code in order to achieve their agenda. From the Fabians to the current importation of large numbers of muslims - as anti- the Judeo-Christian code as it is possible to get - it becomes obvious that the Left is being driven by real sociopaths (e.g. George "I'll get rich by stripping those Jews of their possessions on the way to the extermination camps" Soros - a "god" in his own mind). If our country can't turn that around, those sociopaths will have won (unless we are somehow able to rise from those ashes).
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