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Shark-like, they rise fast but risk killing the world economy, concludes a business professor.
One per cent of humans: Not murderously insane, just devoid of empathy and ultimately destructive.
Who put us in this mess? Those 'natural persons' otherwise know as corporations.
Makers of hot doc 'The Corporation' talk about soulless power, 'socially responsible' business, unions, and trying to know what's real anymore.
Way ahead of Occupiers, US founding leaders raged against powerful, corrupting financiers.
Find more politics reporting on The Tyee.
Given the state of the global economy, it might not surprise you to learn that psychopaths may be controlling the world. Not violent criminals, but corporate psychopaths who nonetheless have a genetically-inherited biochemical condition that prevents them from feeling normal human empathy.
Scientific research is revealing that 21st century financial institutions with a high rate of turnover and expanding global power have become highly attractive to psychopathic individuals to enrich themselves at the expense of others, and the companies they work for.
A peer-reviewed theoretical paper from 2011 titled "The Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis" details how highly-placed psychopaths in the banking sector may have nearly brought down the world economy through their own inherent inability to care about the consequences of their actions.
The author of this paper, Clive Boddy, previously of Nottingham Trent University, believes this theory would go a long way to explain how senior managers acted in ways that were disastrous for the institutions they worked for, the investors they represented and the global economy at large.
If true, this also means the astronomically expensive public bailouts will not solve the problem since many of the morally impaired individuals who caused this mess likely remain in positions of power. Worse, they may be the same people advising governments on how to resolve this crisis.
To tackle this problem, we must instead examine this rare and curious condition, and why recent corporate history may have elevated precisely the wrong type of people to positions of great power and public trust.
Unfeeling, but not insane
Psychopathy should not be confused with insanity. It is best described by Robert Hare, global expert and psychologist, as "emotional deafness" -- a biochemical inability to experience normal feelings of empathy for others.
This shark-like fixation on self-interest means that psychopaths often feel a clear detachment from other people, viewing them more as sheep to be preyed upon than fellow humans to relate to. For instance, psychopaths in prison often use group therapy sessions not as a healing process, but as an opportunity to learn how to simulate normal human emotions.
Studies on twins have revealed that psychopathy shows a strong genetic signature and there remains no effective treatment. Recent research has linked the condition to physical abnormalities in the amygdala region of the brain.
Only a small subset of psychopaths become the violent criminals so often fictionalized in film. Most simply seek to blend in and conceal their difference in order to more effectively manipulate others. This frightening condition has existed throughout human history, though likely in a marginal and socially parasitic way.
While psychopaths are often portrayed by Hollywood as brilliantly clever, a hypothetical race of Hannibal Lecters would likely perish since they lack the ability to trust each other. Put another way, the human race -- a relatively weak, slow, hairless tropical primate -- has succeeded so spectacularly in every ecosystem on the planet not because we are so bad, but because we are so good.
Most dangerous one per cent
The human ability to build social capital means that people can co-operate and trust each other. We can reliably predict the behaviour of others even if we have never met them. Social capital is the glue that holds together our communities, complex societies, large institutions and the economy. The one and only superpower possessed by psychopaths is their ruthless ability to spend the social capital created by others.
Scientists believe about one per cent of the general population is psychopathic, meaning there are more than three million moral monsters amongst normal United States citizens. There is emerging evidence that this frequency increases within the upper management of modern corporations. This is not surprising since personal ruthlessness and fixation on personal power have become seen as strong assets to large publicly traded corporations (which some authors believe have also become psychopathic).
However, appearance and performance are two different things. While psychopaths are often outwardly charming and excellent self-promoters, they are also typically terrible managers, bullying co-workers and creating chaos to conceal their behaviour.
When employed in senior levels, their pathology also means they are biochemically incapable of something they are legally required to do: act in good faith on behalf of other people. The banking and corporate sector is built on the ancient principle of fiduciary duty -- a legal obligation to act in the best interest of those whose money or property you are entrusted with. Asking a psychopath to do that is like recruiting a pyromaniac to be a firefighter.
The folly of mixing psychopathy and senior corporate management has been borne out by recent history. At the end of the last decade, numerous banking institutions representing hundreds of years of corporate financial stability ceased to exist within a few short months due to the reckless acts of a few individuals -- none of whom have ever been charged with a crime.
And therein lies the rub. As ruthless as psychopaths are, their pathology dictates that they will ultimately act to the detriment of the organizations and investors they are paid so well to represent.
Fertile for pyschopaths: New corporate culture
If this theory is correct, how did this become such a crisis in recent decades? Boddy suggests that corporations have changed from relatively stable institutions where psychopaths would have a difficult time concealing themselves, to highly fluid organizations where it is much easier for them to disappear within the chaos in their wake.
"(The) whole corporate and employment environment changed from one that would hold the Corporate Psychopath in check to one where they could flourish and advance relatively unopposed," Boddy writes. "As evidence of this, senior level remuneration and reward started to increase more and more rapidly and beyond all proportion to shop floor incomes and a culture of greed unfettered by conscience developed. Corporate Psychopaths are ideally situated to prey on such an environment and corporate fraud, financial misrepresentation, greed and misbehaviour went through the roof, bringing down huge companies and culminating in the Global Financial Crisis that we are now in."
Boddy is not hopeful that the current round of expensive public bailouts will solve the problem. If psychopaths have in fact installed themselves in the upper reaches of the world's financial institutions, their genetic deficiency dictates that their greed knows no bounds. They will continue to act in antisocial, remorseless ways, amplified by their enormous corporate influence until the institutions they represent and perhaps the entire global economy collapses. Obviously, more academic research in this area is urgently needed.
Boddy concludes his recent paper with this grim prediction:
"Writing in 2005, this author... predicted that the rise of Corporate Psychopaths was a recipe for corporate and societal disaster. This disaster has now happened and is still happening. Across the western world, the symptoms of the financial crisis are now being treated. However, this treatment of the symptoms will have little effect because the root cause is not being addressed. The very same Corporate Psychopaths, who probably caused the crisis by their self-seeking greed and avarice, are now advising governments on how to get out of the crisis. That this involves paying themselves vast bonuses in the midst of financial hardship for many millions of others is symptomatic of the problem. Further, if (this theory is correct) then we are now far from the end of the crisis. Indeed, it is only the end of the beginning. Perhaps more than ever before, the world needs corporate leaders with a conscience.... Measures exist to identify Corporate Psychopaths. Perhaps it is time to use them."
Time has come for testing
Boddy's last statement contains a kernel of hope. If our world has become chaotic due to institutionalized psychopathy, imagine how much better it could be if such dangerously impaired individuals were excluded from positions of power and influence.
Precedence exists for dealing with such situations. Randomized workplace drug testing became the norm in the 1980s. At the time, civil libertarians strongly objected on the basis that it violated personal privacy protections. However, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 1989 that such testing was constitutional and now about 25 per cent of Fortune 500 companies routinely require their employees to submit to such tests.
Perhaps investors at major financial institutions should require that senior level managers submit to established tests to ensure they are not psychopathic. This is not an issue of civil liberties since the precedent has already been well established regarding drug impairment in the workplace. Likewise, it is not a regulatory issue since private shareholders have every right to demand that executives demonstrate they are not biochemically impaired and therefore unable to carry out their fiduciary duties on behalf of investors. If corporate boards are hiring psychopaths as executive management, they are not carrying out their due diligence and could be held legally liable for their oversight.
Companies should also consider providing employees with specific whistleblower provisions to expose potential psychopaths in the workplace. A 2010 study by Boddy showed that corporate psychopaths caused more than one quarter of all workplace bullying, though they accounted for only one per cent of the workforce.
Besides being traumatic and humiliating to other workers, this bullying is also very expensive. Boddy calculated that bullying by corporate psychopaths cost companies in the U.K. more than £3.5 billion per year in lost productivity and attrition. Extrapolating these results to the United States, these deviant individuals are responsible for more than $35 billion in direct annual losses to U.S. businesses.
Politicians, too?
And what about elected officials? There is no higher standard of trust in our society than standing for public office. Campaigning politicians are expected to submit to almost absurd levels of scrutiny about their private lives, character and personal relationships. Should not candidates begin providing voters proof that they are medically capable of acting in the interests of the public that may elect them?
The Occupy Wall Street protesters demanding an end to the reign of the "one per cent" may have unwittingly stumbled on the crux of the issue. Science tells us that 99 per cent of humans have normal emotional function. One per cent are psychopaths. We ignore that truth at our peril.
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mcwar52
1 year ago
Quis custodet ipsos custodes ?
The article is very good in terms of describing the issue as scientists currently understand it. Unfortunately, it's actually not a scientific question: it's a political one. Scientists are not really equipped to offer solutions.
The problem with power structures is that it is the power hungry who thrive most successfully in them, and not all the power hungry are, or at least start out, as psychopaths. I suspect many people's ambition turns their workplace behaviour psychopathic even as they still retain some residual but seldom exercised capacity for empathy in other situations.
Even if one were able to establish an effective vetting system for psychopaths in business, "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." And one of the ways in which power corrupts is that it always seeks to become absolute. Therefore, since the system is in fact designed to be run by psychopaths, it will create them regardless of any checks one might try to establish. Indeed, the repeal of Glass-Steagal, and other depression era legislation designed to keep psychopathic banksters in check, shows how unreliable are efforts to control such people through regulation in the long term.
In other words, tiresome as it is for people continually to be echoing OWS at the moment, it's the [capitalist] system itself which needs changing.
Dan the socialist
1 year ago
I would say many CEO's and
I would say many CEO's and big wigs are psychopaths. It makes a lot of sense. Maybe not as bad as the fictional JR Ewing but still very bad. I would also say many politicians are psychopaths as well. They crave the power and be honest have some delusional disorders like Narcissistic personality disorder, which I believe Stephen Harper suffers from.
snert
1 year ago
I guess,
that if you wanna be an alpha then it kinda helps to be a psychopath.
Van Isle
1 year ago
A recent example of
A recent example of psychopatic behaviour is with certain officers in the RCMP and their treatment of their subordinates.
ron wilton
1 year ago
The test has already been
The test has already been done here in BC.
Our former premier fits perfectly with the text book definition/description of the siciopath/psychopath personality.
I suspect the character of the person who inveigled the former premier to run for that office, with now clear results, would also fit the profile.
Google 'profile of a sociopath' for a jaw dropping revelation and insight into BC politics.
Cynic
1 year ago
The thrive movement takes a
The thrive movement takes a good look at what the psychopathic power elite are up to.
http://thrivemovement.com/home
Vox.Pop
1 year ago
Corporatism breeds Pychopaths
'The Corporation' (book & documentary) clearly demonstrated that large capitalist corporations behave like psychopaths. But these organizations are a legal fiction - they are controlled by men (99%), they are the psychopaths. The problem is that this style of business organization attracts such deeply disturbed people, who once on board, rapidly climb to the top in the military style, hierarchical command model. The directors & major shareholders of these companies want such people to do their dirty work for them since they too are psychopaths but are smart enough to keep a low profile.
This problem will not be fixed until directors & executives in public corporations are held personally responsible for the actions & decisions of these giant pools of capital. This is a political problem & needs a political solution, so it will not happen until after a giant collapse.
Sooke
1 year ago
While we're testing.....
...let's do Tyee Columnists as well.
janetvickers
1 year ago
Let power from within emerge to dissolve power over
The current ideologies ruling this world have just about destroyed it absolutely. Let the people occupy power in whatever small ways they can to replace it. http://jacksonmeadvickers.blogspot.com/#!/2011/10/occupy-power.html
Frank
1 year ago
Sooke
I have a better idea, let's test everybody.
I know I can say I didn't see myself when reading this article, I doubt you can say the same.
DNA
1 year ago
Nonsense
When try to explain serious problems economics and corporate organization with with concepts in psychology, what you get is psychobabble like this article. I'm sure some corporate leaders have psychopathic tendencies--and at the same time, some do not,but are on the human level quite pleasant and positive to relate to. Same thing is true in nearly every field of human endeavor. The problems we face are economic and political, not because the 1% (a few million people) are all of one personality type. Anyway, what's the point of this analysis? How does it get us anywhere? Do we put all corporate leaders on the analyst's couch? What we need to mobilize to change are economic and political systems, and not be deceived that our only problem is a few (or 1% of) bad apples. Yes, it gives us another bad name to call CEO's - nanaah nanaah nanaah, you're a psychopath. Ridiculous.
Gerry McGuire
1 year ago
It makes you wonder...
Hmmm...is this what emotional deafness sounds like?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZDVGipZwdQ
Gerry McGuire
1 year ago
PS
Listen carefully at 3:06-3:08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZDVGipZwdQ
skelly
1 year ago
Testing issues
I'm all for sociopath /psychopathy / empathy testing as described. Unfortunately, my understanding is that the testing isn't sophisticated enough yet. I would like to be able to screen for it in sperm donors, for example. I have spoken with a family member of a violent psychopath, who has chosen not to reproduce for fear of passing the trait on, and to women who have borne children to suspected psychopaths and worry about their children inheriting this problem.
The only treatment I've heard about that's even remotely effective is for young children with sociopathic tendencies. If there were some sort of genetic testing then children requiring help learning empathy could be reached as young as possible.
For those of you interested in psychopathy and the research on how to spot it, I recommend the book, Predators, paedophiles, rapists, and other sex offenders: Who they are, how they operate, and how we can protect ouraelves and our children” by Anna Salter, PhD
elahug2
1 year ago
. . . only 1%?
I love this article but, like . . . try 20%!
Okanagan Orchardist
1 year ago
Snakes in Suits ....
The topic of psychopaths is thoroughly covered in the book "Snakes in Suits" which has been recommended in the TYEE before.
There has been limited mention of Military psychopaths, but, I can assure you, having spent 5 years in the "lower deck" of the RCN, that they are very prevalent among the officers of the armed forces. With the power they have among our Conservative members, it is no wonder we are spending billions on stealth fighters -- so that we can "show" our colours (the sleek silver of invisibility) over the Arctic. I've never been able to see why taxpayers think it is necessary for Canada to spend as much money as we do on weapons of war when we couldn't fight our way out of a paper bag --- and having participated in war games with a number of countries back in the 60's I speak with some experience. And stealth fighters are not going to help us a smidgeon.
frank2
1 year ago
The problem isn't the
The problem isn't the psychopaths. The problem is that the POLITICAL/ECONOMIC SYSTEM rewards people who take enormous risks -- even when the result is damage to everyone else (us). A good start would be to: establish competition rules that ensure NO enterprise is "too big to fail;" that in case of losses, investors, bond-holders and TOP EXECUTIVES/Board members cover all losses, with only last resort access to the taxpayer before turning to the tax payer; implementation of much stronger regulations on treatment of the environment and labour. Sure, these measures might result in less "growth" -- at least for a while; but stability and sustainability might be a lot higher. And let's face it, continued "growth" for those in the rich world can only be purchased at the double cost of increased environmental damage, reduction of future opportunities for the 80+% in poor countries, and even greater human disasters if human ingenuity fails to produce technological miracles don't occur as required. Let the psychopaths and sociopaths attempt to operate in a better organised system, and their behaviours would be defined as criminal, and punished as such.
Sally Bowles
1 year ago
Psychopathy
Although I'm inclined to agree with Boddy, out of "looks like a duck, sounds like a duck" probability, it does seem like a rush to pin a profound and incurable physiological deficiency onto a whole bunch of people. My question to that is: why do they need to be psychopaths? Why isn't what they did wrong and evil enough as it is without stamping it with warped genes? The condition explains and excuses the perpetrators, as in "Of course they destroyed our economies and have ruined millions of lives. They couldn't help it since they're psychopaths."
If we give that psychopaths 'game' systems and rise to positions where they can capitalize on the rest of our effort, then we have to assume that they will figure out a way around any measures we put in place to keep them out of power. So what we have to do is identify the behaviour and reverse that: ie., take their money, property and resources away. Make it a crime against humanity to own more than a a certain percentage above the median property and resources that the majority of the world's population owns, punishable by having it taken away. That's a rough example, but the point is that there is a whole bunch of illusion in the monetary system itself. It only exists out of our collective faith in it. Which begs the question of why it is still in place given recent events?
igbymac
1 year ago
People take cover in group environments
... and it is especially easy to do so behind the cloak of limited liability multi-national, influence-wielding corporations, or a uniform.
The problem is with us allowing unaccountable creations like corporations to exist in the hands of private persons. We must make individual people FULLY accountable for their behaviour, and this includes politicians. 200 years ago the general population would have shat itself if dumped into our world of corporatocracy.
Here is a good primer on the legal-political history of corporations.
http://www.ratical.org/corporations/TCoB.html
This is also why I routinely point out that Party politics is part of the same scheme shielding individuals. We vote for a legal fiction, a Party, and not a person whom we can hold accountable. Yes, we mark an 'X" off near a name and, but for the rare independent candidate, the person is beholden to the Party first (according to various Party membership rules I've read).
There are direct linkages between the ruling elite and corporate jurisprudence. We just aren't interested in learning about such insightful and revealing truths, or so it appears. Because if we had a more comprehensive understanding of this matter, I'd be shocked if we weren't in near full support for tearing the system down and rebuilding a peoples democracy.
snert
1 year ago
igbymac
I'm not sure what the point would be to that. Every time it's been tried in the past the very same type of personality steps right into the old shoes.
Better to try and modify what we've got.
igbymac
1 year ago
snert, did you bother to read the article I posted up?
So let's assume you have, you know, for argument's sake.
Now explain how we are going to 'modify' what we have to start serving the people first and foremost. Beg for compassion??
mrsthursday
1 year ago
Crazy, but not that crazy
Yeah, I've worked with psychopath work-mates and they're a pain, but good at the job.
I worked with a couple of them at marketing and they have no morals at all so they do really well when it comes to selling a client on a particular plan of action that benefits them and leaves very little for the client or their own company. but the numbers look good so like the article says they create confusion that benefits them exclusively.
RickW
1 year ago
snert
OMG! I'm actually AGREEING with you......
However, short of a Gene Roddenberry "solution", I can't see how tinkering with what we've got will not lead back to what we are trying to avoid.....
zalm
1 year ago
[Sniff]
"I guess, that if you wanna be an alpha then it kinda helps to be a psychopath."
Certainly fits the bill for Robert "Toxic Bob" Friedland. So-called Big Mining Promoter, he made his name cutting every corner, bribing every official, purchasing influence wherever he could in an effort to make himself as much money as possible in the easiest way possible.
After walking away from his toxic mining spill in Nevada, he did it all over again in Guyana, causing several deaths as well as shocking environmental damage with yet another toxic mining spill. Then he used mercenaries on civilians as well as rebels in Sierra Leone to continue his rape of the blood diamond mine he appropriated. now he's in Burma, cozying up to generals while his mines dump wastewater so toxic into local streams that local people boil their drinking water to get copper salts out to sell back to the company.
http://www.albionmonitor.com/9612a/friedland.html
http://www.asadismi.ws/burma.html
http://multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1994/11/mm1194_08.html
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-10-24/tech/30315390_1_steve-jobs-summitville-mining-interests
It's hardly a surprise to hear that Friedland got his start early, serving a 2-year sentence for trafficking 24,000 hits of LSD in the '60s after spending time as a cult leader. I'm sure we all understand getting caught with a page of acid, but the whole damn encyclopedia?
I think the term "psychopath" perfectly describes this man. How many others like him are out there?
I'm sure there will be people at his funeral who will lionize him, saying "He lived life to the fullest." It'll be intersting to see exactly who.
mopled
1 year ago
Whatever political/economic system is in place,
psychopaths will find ways to game it.
I'm glad people are beginning to understand how those without conscience must be identified before they can do harm.
http://www.fisheadmovie.com/watch-the-movie (password is: fhmovie )
snert
1 year ago
igbymac
Very carefully.
Bruno96
1 year ago
Corporate Identification
EVERYONE should have been up in arms when Corporations were given the same rights as a Human Being in courts of supposed Law.
You can Jail an Individual.
How, exactly, do you "Jail" a Corporation?
OhCanada
1 year ago
Easy solution
I guess the easiest solution would be to hire a psychopath and have him gun down all the others. That would clear the path. I wonder why this has not happened yet. Better politicians with no psychopathic tendencies were assasinated for no reason.
On the other hand, I agree with some of the comments here. It is easy to blame the psychopath - that 1% - but what the hell did the other 99% do by allowing this? We are also at fault to let it happen!
I agree, a test whether you are a psychopath or not is really useless. Implementing measures and policies that will make people responsible and accountable has a better chance to weed out the garbage.
mopled
1 year ago
Part of the problem is that normal people
keep trying to make better systems that would work just fine IF......
I think it is very hard for the normal to understand how a psychopath works until there has been up-close and personal interaction.
Crime and punishment is for normal people with conscience who are capable of feeling guilt and remorse. This is not letting the psychopaths "off the hook". Rather it is understanding that one is dealing with a predator. There is just no point in blaming a snake or a tiger for acting the way they were designed to.
oldradiojock
1 year ago
Our Fault?
"Oh Canada" said;
"It is easy to blame the psychopath - that 1% - but what the hell did the other 99% do by allowing this? We are also at fault to let it happen! "
If you believe that the destruction that those Financial Page miscreants bestowed upon the World, was caused by the inaction of we regular citizens, give your head a rattle.
This was a BOMB,..one which blew up in the faces of the Bay & Wall Street whores & crooked, greedy Bankers.
These people are entrusted to abide by the Laws that we enacted, to protect ALL.
They illegally experimented with the finances of millions of people.
Whole countries are on the brink of collapse, which you apparently find humour in.
"Oh Canada," all is not lost:
Your phony rant does accomplish something ...it exposes you as one of the guilty, trying to make excuses for your crimes.
OhCanada
1 year ago
oldradiojock
I gave my head a rattle and this is what I came up with...
The blame game is an easy way out. Taking responsibility is another matter and much harder to do.
Psychopath - they exist because the system allows them to exist. And you can blame it on the genes and all the bs. The bottom line is no one has made a big fuss - let alone demanded! - to put these criminals behind bars.
I see plenty of people get angry when their favorite team does not win. They even go into riot for that.
Time will change when people go to riot over losing their entire savings because of bad management and criminal activity. Demand it and change will happen.
And this is where the 99%'s responsibilty lies.
igbymac
1 year ago
snert :)
nice response, very carefully. I like it!
For clarification, I don't mean to be suggesting we throw the baby out with the bathwater by rebuilding. Sometimes there is a nice old wooden door worthy of salvage.
oldradiojock
1 year ago
Oh Canada 2
We seem to be on the same page, in most respects.
The people charged to deploy the Armed Forces, RCMP, etc, should be proven capable, too.
At the start of the protests governments, banks & stock markets laughed off the gatherings.
It appeard that to make their point, the angered crowds were going to start targeting them individually.
Thankfully, this did not occur.
You can bet that if those financial sleazers are convicted, they will be sentenced to a country club.
Instead, they should have their assets forfeited and be forced to wear a "Kick Me" sign, in perpetuity.
igbymac
1 year ago
I cannot help but think it is our 'thinking' which is whacked!
When you say, Oh Canada, that "It is easy to blame the psychopath - that 1% - but what the hell did the other 99% do by allowing this? We are also at fault to let it happen!" it is a very valid question.
We have allowed, though hugely urged on, to not be responsible for our thinking about matters. We have been kettled into thinking corrals. Systemically we defer to the supposed 'authority' on all matters and stop asking fundamental questions:
Why do we believe what we believe?
That is a fundamental and one of the most critical questions we need to investigate within ourselves. What is the source of our information, and why are they telling us this?
Imagine one dropping into Canada from outer space and being told that our government represents the will of the people at large. Soon he'd learn that millions of people are hungry, unemployed, underemployed, unhappy or suicidal, while a few thousand others are accruing multiple-lifetimes of wealth and comfort through fantasy people called corporations. The disconnect between the theory and the reality is so overwhelming the spaceman would scoff.
And it's also hard to believe we accept it. But we do. We even urge one another on to support it, regurgitating the mass propaganda we learn as 'truisms', and protecting the imperialism of our noble cultural as though divine.
Can we not all see some obvious flaws which could be easily fixed but never are? [i.e., If the will of the people was paramount,] Isn't the answer 'why' as plain as a child not getting to stay up late because dad said so?
We need to start asking, where did I learn this? Why was I told this? Why would I believe this? What do I assume as true in order to accept this information as also true? Who or what is to gain by me believing this? Are the people telling me this information even questioning how they came to know it? What is their role in all of this? Are they deciding this is important to know, or are they simply passing it along? And why do they think it is important? The questions are virtually endless.
But few of us ask them and, more importantly, even fewer try to answer them objectively beyond the school text or the nightly news.
Yes, we are also complicit in our own demise, in our own subjugation within the system. If we had bothered to try to understand the history of power, psychopathy, wealth, propaganda, the law and politics, we'd come to realize the few only have power because the many acquiesce their own thinking to the few.
We give them power, our power. And being the sort of persons whom desire power, they take it and do all they can to hold onto it. And we watch. And we complain. But we don't take our own power back when it is being exploited. And that is what is wrong.
RickW
1 year ago
zalm
In other words, a good Canadian corporate citizen - right "up there" with Harper peddling asbestos........
Rog
1 year ago
Psychopaths in high places
I am so relieved to read this article because it has been my hobbyhorse for a long time.Tests will be gamed by a clever psychopath so I would suggest a reversal..test people for suitability ...good decision making ,leadership, wisdom,practicality,resourcefulness etc. so that candidates for office and promotion must produce this credential or not be eligible. Pedophiles should not be eligible to be ministers,foster parents and scout masters....predatory homosexuals should not be prison guards. It is amazing how blind our society is to puting ineligible people into jobs they will create stress in.
Societal damage , political malpractice,social bullying etc. are all created by the casual approach to selecting candidates so that liable psychopaths are promoted or elected to perpetrate horror on the world. I am still puzzling the effects of power...is anyone fireproof from the madness that effects those cursed with power? Especially a lot of it!
Christophe
1 year ago
Creative people tend to be a bit nuts.
Everybody criticises Hitler for the death camps, but they forget the trains always ran on time.
I am just joking, but if we did weed out all the psychopaths, we would have to replace them with ten people. The psychos have a place, but maybe not at the top.
I worked for one psychopath, many years ago. He was abusive and he was American. I got him fired, but was also punished for my rebellion. It was worth it to see him go down in flames. Victory had a price.
igbymac
1 year ago
There you have an excellent point, Christophe
"Victory has a price."
Many of the critical problems we face as a people in Canada are global and epidemic. The solutions are not found in the thinking we have adopted and carry on. We will have to pay a price to win turn this massive, systemic mess around -- but we can do it if we are willing.
Whether we are willing to stand up, as you did Christophe, and do what is right -- sanctioned by state or not -- is ultimately our own decision. It is about being human and having the courage for self-respect.
As for the socio-pathological types, you'd think we'd be far more leery of, rather than entranced by, their tell-tale charm. Bewilderingly we prefer to enjoy the theatre of it all.
Glen Murtz
1 year ago
They're everywhere...
I recently worked at a video store on the east side, where I was the unlucky recipient of a psychopath. I'd more or less been able to develop a thick skin to their abuse, bullying and belligerence (always done when managers weren't around), but they were always able to make their behaviour seem like a form of cranky humour to others. It wasn't.
The truth is - this person was and is deeply ill.
One night they stood at the store and I watched them become more and more animated (literally near orgasmic) as they told another co-worker and I their favourite story from their youth. On a cold winter day while in grade school, they stood beside the slide while other children slid down it and punched as many in the head as hard as they could.
The "special" part of all this was when they were hauled into the principals office and the resulting chaos as the adults scurried around looking for an "explanation" for their behaviour.
By the time they'd reached this part of their story - the confusion and chaos amongst the adults - this person was rocking back and forth on their feet, with glistening eyes and a huge smile on their face. As if in a trance...
And in that instant, I realized that this squat and diminutive, shy but wisecracking *female* was a psychopath.
Because what she realized in that instant from her youth so many years ago, was that her sex and her small stature would allow her to get away with behaviour that nobody would consider intrinsic. *Something* made her do it - nobody thought she was actually a monster. (Physically it's obvious, but nobody wanted or wants to consider she's emotionally disfigured - sorry - had to get that in there!)
To give you an idea of how manipulated those around her are, on the only occasion in the 2.5 years I was there when I said "enough", I was fired the next day - she told the boss she was so "terrified" she thought she'd have to call 911. The perfect excuse.
So while she'd been warned multiple times about her attitude towards customers, she starts up the tears and the blubbering lips - and all is forgiven.
One last note - the day I was fired, I noted on her Twitter feed (which she knew I'd subscribed to) she posted - "Be proud of who you are - even if no one likes you." To no one in particular of course...
Psychopaths are everywhere.
Even at your local video store.
Mattieblanchard...
1 year ago
working for a Psycho
Advice for anyone working for a psycho: Unfortunately, you have to become paranoid to deal with a psycho boss, because you ARE being undercut (and even paranoids have real enemies.) Never ever believe anything said to you, even when witnesses are present. Only do exactly what is asked of you, even if you can do it better. Changing any detail will result in a fault-finding session. Never offer ideas - you'll only be accused of challenging the psycho's authority. Never indulge in honest conversation about what you're going through - others in the office will have been forced/urged to act as spies. Oh, the list could be longer, but you get the idea. And this cycle of insanity is what passes for management in far too many offices.
OhCanada
1 year ago
igbymac
You got it!
Further on this - I suggest everyone to read the book by Paul Hawken: The Ecology of Commerce. Their lies some of the answers
"those who employed by large corporations naturally see their interest as being linked to the success and growth of their employers. Such fealty resembles the allegiance that sustained fedual baronies; the vassal serfs believed that the lord who exploited them was better than the uncertainty of no lord at all." (Paul Hawken)
So basically we have become servants of the greedy and powerful...
"The world is being destroyed - no doubt about it - by the greed of the rich and powerful. It is also being destroyed by popular demand. There are not enough rich and powerful people to consume the whole world; for that, the rich and powerful need the help of countless ordinary people." (Paul Hawken)
There you have it!
Most of the rich and powerful are psychopaths, cleverly making everyone else their servants.
In my opinion only those will be able to see through their behaviours who are aware, willing to walk the talk, have integrity and will stand up for themselves and for others. This requires to be a different kind of person - not accepting everything as face value but ask questions.
The 99% who call themselves consumers - or rather wasters because all that stuff we have created a huge amount of waste in landfills and etc. - would better start thinking and taking actions collectively and individually.
Artemesia
1 year ago
An interesting book
I read Political Ponerology two years ago.
Ponerology means the study of evil. The author had to reconstruct the manuscript from memory 2x because he had had to destroy it to save himself from the Polish secret police and this last version was written when he was old and in failing health, so it's not an easy read. The work is based on clinical experience of Polish psychiatrists during the period of Soviet domination when psychopaths were in full flower.
I found the article we are commenting on on the site below.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/148141-The-Trick-of-the-Psychopath-s-Trade-Make-Us-Believe-that-Evil-Comes-from-Others
FearNot
1 year ago
Expose Corporate psychopaths
I was unfortunately subjected to a corporate psychopath who I hope you will never meet. We eventually parted ways when I was dismissed without notice and without one months salary. This individual (woman), has left a trail of similar situations and will, no doubt, continue down this path of distruction. In an effort to warn her stakeholders and banking partners I have sent letters to them outlining her true character and examples of the schemes she is involved in. I also posted reports on-line which, from what I've heard has had a significant impact to her business.
Artemesia
1 year ago
An interesting video here
It shows how little human lives mean to the rulers in the US along with links to other pertinent articles.
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/238020-Psychopaths-Rule-The-World-The-Devaluation-of-Human-Life
Did you happen to catch the recent picture of Harper and Obama sharing a joke? It sent chills through me.
igbymac
1 year ago
I certainly second the book recommendation
... The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken; I believe there was a recent revision from the early 1990s edition, but have not read it though, no doubt, informative.
And a good point here on our consumption and waste. I suspect many have already seen the viral video called The Story of Stuff. If not, it is a good introduction to our capitalist ways. Regardless, there is an illustrative quote about the marketing (propaganda) used to shape our thinking in the intro:
– Victor LeBeau, Retail Analyst Post WW II
A few of the interesting statistics from the video are reposted below, copied from the realitysandwich site:
• 80% of the world's forests are gone.
• 2000 trees a minute are cut down in the Amazon alone. That is 7 football fields a minute!
• The U.S. has less than 4% of its forests left.
• 40% of our waterways are undrinkable.
• The U.S. has 5% of the world's population and 30% of the waste.
• 75% of global fisheries have been fished beyond capacity.
• 100,000 synthetic chemicals are used in production today.
• Bromated Flame Retardants (BFR) neurotoxins (toxins to brain) are in computers, mattresses, pillows.
• Food with highest level of contaminants is mother's milk.
• 200,000 people a day are moving to cities from environments that no longer support them.
• U.S. industry *admits* to 4 billion pounds of toxic pollution released per year (likely far more).
• We see more ads in one year than people 50 years ago saw in a lifetime. 3,000 ads a day!
• Average house size has doubled in the U.S. since the 1970's.
• Average American creates 4.5 lbs. garbage a day -- an amount doubled from 30 years ago.
• For every one garbage can you put out at the curb, 70 cans were filled by all the processes needed in order to make it.
• 99% of all those things we buy are not in use after 6 months.
But don't fret. Our 'thinking' isn't the problem. /sarcasm
igbymac
1 year ago
I believe this stat ...
The U.S. has less than 4% of its forests left refers to the old growth.
paperazzi
1 year ago
While it is disturbing and,
While it is disturbing and, yes, depressing to realize the scope of damage psychopaths (and their close cousins, those with narcissistic personality disorder) inflict on society, it is at least reassuring that more people are beginning to recognize it for what it is.
For centuries and more, people have tried to understand the condition of psychopathy. At various times it has been called "moral insanity," "possession," and "evil." These people are portrayed as having human skins with devils living inside. There is good reason for these descriptions: they fit. Whether their actions are driven by "emotional deafness" or an inherent evil force inside them, their BEHAVIOURS are harmful and that is what counts.
Recognizing people who are incapable of feeling human emotion is an important step in avoiding the damage they inevitably cause.
On an individual level, that means not starting a family with people with a tendency to abuse, manipulate or use (we all know someone who fits that bill).
On a societal level, it means not putting these people into positions of power - whether in a workplace or politics.
So I am fully supportive of testing these critters. To take it even further, they shouldn't be permitted to breed, either. In fact, perhaps they should have a rock out in space all to themselves (but perhaps I am biased, having known more than one and having almost lost my life on account of them). If there were any gene to remove from the human DNA, it is this one.
And for what it's worth, it seems 1% is low-balling the disorder by a considerable amount.
david hadaway
1 year ago
Biology
To understand the existence and nature of psychopaths it is also helpful to study the natural world. They are usually, and rather flatteringly, compared to predators. In fact many more parallels can be found among parasites, not surprisingly as they exist in very much this relationship to the general population.
It's a huge and grimly fascinating subject, which I hope doesn't make me sound too weird, far too much for a short comment. However one characteristic is for parasite and host to develop a balance, the parasite doesn't benefit from killing the host which itself cannot defeat the parasite in a genetic arms race. In fact the relationship can become symbiotic. However disrupt that balance, for example an environmental change which stimulates the parasite beyond the capacity of the host to support it, and disaster can result.
OhCanada
1 year ago
Not weird at all... david hadaway
The host has a choice then!
1. It can keep on supporting the parasite even if it is beyond the capacity of the host - this road only leads to both the host and the parasite to self destruct/ die out.
2. The host can change the environment that results in the parasite to die off as the environment that supported it is no longer there. Point #2 is the logical and biologically feasible option. It also makes common sense. The parasite cannot exist without a host. The host however does not need the parasite as it does not benefit from it.
igbymac
1 year ago
dang it, OhCanada
I cannot help but agree with you again. ;)
paperazzi
1 year ago
OhCanada...
I've always thought of sociopaths as being parasites. Predators at least have a place in the natural order of things whereas parasites serve no purpose and every creature that is host to them could live more happily without them.
So if we were to go with choice #2 what would that look like in the real world? What is a feasible solution to this problem is what I'd really like to know - quarantining them? Euthanizing them? These critters are destructive on even a very simple level (ie - families).
Even if we were able to prevent them from entering positions of power, they cannot help but unravel the very fabric of society starting at the root: the family.
igbymac
1 year ago
paperazzi
...consider living in a system where power was not centralized. Consider living in a system where education had great depth and breadth for all. Consider living in a system where parasitic (we are talking socio-pathological) behaviour could not be so easily used for personal gain because striving for dominating wealth would not be a cultural desire. Consider living in a system where such acts were actually shunned rather than revered.
It truly is a matter of what we learn than governs our behaviour and charts our world view. So to get from here to there, we have to change our learning. Just a thought. :)