Subject: Re: Sooo...how do we fix this mess? From: Tiny Human Ferret Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 17:54:20 -0400 Newsgroups: alt.politics.immigration tooly wrote: > "Tiny Human Ferret" wrote in message > news:409CD5A3.8090807@earthops.net... > >> David Goldberg wrote: >> >>> Tiny Human Ferret wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>>> David Goldberg wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>>> Maniack wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> We, the American people, allowed a total incompetent to take office, a >>>>>> man with a history of addiction, a spotty record in academics and in >>>>>> his business ventures, clearly ignorant of all aspects of >>>>>> international affairs, an ideologue, a religious fanatic, and a puppet >>>>>> to a circle of discredited hacks. >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Yes, in the long run America is fucked (but not necessarily for the >>>>> reasons you cite), and 99.99% of Americans are powerless to do anything >>>>> about it. >>>>> >>>>> In the meantime, make as much money as you can and enjoy life as much > > > as > >>>>> possible. >>>> >>>> >>>> That closing remark is one of the best examples yet in support of my >>>> contention that the US College system is increasingly geared towards >>>> graduating only yuppie sociopaths with no scruples whatsoever and with >>>> an amoral creed summarized as "whoever dies with the most toys wins". >>>> >>> >>> >>> No, I'll likely spend most of it before I die. >> >> >> Even more exemplary of untrammelled greed and a complete disdain for >> posterity. >> >> You know, psychologists and criminologists used to think that sociopaths >> were "just different, you know, really really different, so different as >> to be essentially non-human". But now they've changed their minds, and >> prefer to describe sociopaths as "inherently evil". >> >> I agree with the professionals in this case. I'd suggest you seek the >> care of one, but as any of those professionals would say, don't waste >> your time trying to treat a sociopath, they're beyond redemption. >> >> > > > We hear the word, but meeting the 'reality' raises one's consciousness. A > lot > of people can do bad things, but when you meet a real sociopath, there is a > definite 'empathetic' reach missing that stands apparent. One realizes that > there are things in us more than 'form' that makes us human and that > whatever word we may call it, there are some people in our midst so maligned > from the absence of this 'ingredient' of minimum compassion, or fear, or > need for membership or whatever it is, well...'evil' is perhaps as > descriptive as what meets the eye. It has been my experience such people > are indeed out of > touch, and cannot be 'reached'. But what is even more scary is how > intelligent such people can be. I've done a fair amount of study on the various "personality disorders", first by reading up on serial killers, which led of course to some study of sociopaths, and then to other personality disorders, such as Borderline, Histrionic, Narcissistic, etc. The thing is that many of these personality disorders are characterized by an inability to distinguish between their concept of the world, and the world itself. You might at first think that this is probably commonplace, but really, it's not. Most people realize as children that they are a unique viewpoint and each individual also is a unique viewpoint, and that consequently to understand other people you have to imagine what it would be like for you if you were in their skin, living their life. Some are better at this than others, but only in very rare cases do we encounter people who actually cannot quite understand that other people are entirely independent of the existence of themselves. Sociopaths frequently see people as puppets, or performers, in an immense stage play. As sociopaths _are_ frequently quite intelligent, they discover early on that they can often manipulate other people, and commonly fall into habits which include constant very low-grade manipulation of others, combined with selecting the company (not companionship, they haven't quite got the capacity) of the easily manipulated. Many sociopaths who do this successfully, and without bringing themselves under the scrutiny of law-enforcement, further deepen their concept of the world as a stage play, one increasingly under their control; and so far as they only deal with people they can manipulate, this may be rather true of their own little corner of the world. Interestingly, many of them at this point begin to lose the concept of there being anything much outside of their own experience and perceptions. (See also the concept of "ideas of reference".) This is where, if ever, they start to head off the deep end. Apparently, the worst thing that can happen to a sociopath at this stage is to be reminded that in truth there are outside forces and that those forces can be beyond their control. Consistent reminders of this sort of thing can apply a level of stress that is intolerable to the sociopath, and many of the "organized type" of serial-killer apparently applies a recurrent fantasy -- of total control over other individual(s) -- to a real person in real life, apparently to them this reaffirms their inherent conviction that the world is controllable and that they are the controller. From there they can get into a cycle where their fantasy is reinforced periodically by real-life enactment to release stress and reaffirm their "control"; and as the fantasy is realized in real-life, the learning-curve in the real-life events is incorporated into the fantasy, which evolves, and refines itself. In the next irruption into real-life, the serial-killer's fantasy may be realized perfectly and further affirm the serial-killer's belief that the world, or at least any person s/he chooses, is his to do with as s/he will. And until they're brought to justice, and frequently thereafter until they are destroyed, they just don't have the concept of "other"; everything is just another part of their dream, as far as they can tell. To summarize, they're not talking to you, but to their concept of you, and this complete disconnection precludes empathy, and can make them rather dangerous. You probably don't feel responsible for what happens to characters in your dreams, do you? Sociopaths feel the same way about real people in real life; they don't owe you anything because you're just a character in their dream. Unfortunately, the systems by which we advance people in their careers seem in many cases to be ripe for exploitation by sociopaths. Enron and Worldcom appear to be examples of what bad results can be produced. To CEO sociopaths, the people who lost their life savings are only characters in their dream they're having of being a successful businessman. -- The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance, and produce the effects, of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. --Gibbon, "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"