New research has exposed, shall we say, the root of the problem. Pathocracy is its flower.
Definition: pathocracy (n). A system of government created by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society of normal people (from Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, by Andrew Lobaczewski).
A small minority of people are born psychopaths; they inherit a genetic deviance linked to certain structural abnormalities of their social brain.
The physical dynamic that exposes psychopaths is a reduction of gray matter in the anterior rostral prefrontal cortex and temporal poles. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is able to image this deviation fundamental to psychopathy. Potential benefits to humanity are immense; imagine something like a TSA screening (without the bureaucracy, groping and humiliation) to keep psychopaths from boarding the flight to power.
Psychopaths enjoy a perverse advantage over normal people in ascending pyramids of power. Unfettered by conscience, empathy, morality...some might say, without the weight of a soul, psychopaths readily rise to the top in a society turned upside down by pathocracy. Lying, cheating, stealing, backstabbing - without remorse, psychopaths can claw for power in ways that make a person with a conscience recoil.
It's not so much that power corrupts as that the corrupt seek power.
Politics and investment banking are prime waters for psychopaths to school. If people enjoying great power over others were screened for social-brain deviations with an MRI scan, and the psychopaths were weeded out, renaissance might occupy Capital Hill and Wall Street. Judging from our current state of politics and financialization, there certainly would be many vacancies to fill in such a furthering of the humane.
It truly is right in our hands, an opportunity we may never see again.
But...possessing the means of physically detecting psychopathy and correcting the blight of psychopathic "leadership" may be irrelevant in the face of pathocracy fully entrenched. Psychopaths in power would never volunteer to have their social-brain deviations revealed, would never allow legislation regarding a brain MRI as a prerequisite to holding any elective office.
Perhaps it's true, "where there's a will, there's a way". Technology offers us the way - the key to identifying the human brain's physical roots of psychopathy. The question becomes whether or not the American public has the will to force holders of great power over others, and seekers of such power, to bare their soul...or lack thereof.
Legislation requiring some "newfangled, junk-science" brain scan for leaders could only be forced from below. But our influence down here in the 99.99% is withering toward nothing but voting for a red psychopath, or a blue one, in elections controlled by unlimited corporate cash, and fraud.
And there's: "Either with us, or against us". Criminalization of dissent is plodding toward any questioning of entrenched pathocracy becoming "domestic terrorism".
A most insidious aspect of psychopathy: It's in the genes. Not only can moneypower be passed on through progeny, so can genes for psychopathy. The elite are shameless in pronouncing their gigadeath plans (95% reduction of human population) with such as Agenda 21, Georgia Guidestones, Denver airport...though they are elusive about how billions of humans will be eliminated....
When human population is reduced to 500,000,000, will the elite in absolute control be psychopaths across the board?
Perhaps an easy way to consider our potential is a simple MRI scan: Imagine...Dick Cheney was screened from ultimately becoming, for eight years, the de facto president of the greatest military power Earth has ever suffered.
Imagine that 9/11 never happened.
Comment: See also this. Also, a search of SOTT on 'psychopath' and 'psychopathy' will provide a wealth of material on this subject.
One overlooked reason why the psychopaths in power "are elusive about how billions of humans will be eliminated" is because they know Something Wicked This Way Comes, including the advent of an Ice Age... they intend to ride out the storm and leave humanity to the mercy of Nature.
Reader Comments
I think the worst thing about psychopathic behavior is that it, like most other human behaviors, is contagious. When psychopaths attain power and control the local emotional environment, it is usual to find that non-genetically psychopathic people will begin to exhibit psychopathic behavior.
It is said that humans are the only species on the planet without a natural predator. I strongly suspect that this statement is false, based upon the differences in brain structure. I suspect that humanity is divided into two nearlyidentical but crucially different subspecies: predator and prey. I'm pretty sure that if you looked, you'd find that the statistical occurence of genetic psychopaths is similar to that of most predators to their prey species.
If you look at history with an unbiased eye, you might notice that social collapses are quite similar to what happens when predators overbreed their niche and cause a collapse in the prey species. Or you might think of them as an invasive virus that can kill a host. It's hard not to see Pizarro and his bloodthisty crew in such a light.
But there is a way to begin to fight back and create a pool of sanity.
In this economy, there should be a number of small communities that are for sale. If a pool of investors could be brought together to buy and live in it, and as a requirement of investing be screened for psychopathy, then when the town charter is created, such screening can be a universal prerequisite for office-holding or employment by the city.
If a psychopath-free sanctuary can be established, it could then serve as a model for the nearby centers, spreading to the county and elsewhere. The media would probably bite on it and spread the idea before it could be quashed.
It would be important to use the MRI results as a preliminary screening that is followed up by interviews and a Hare test the ensure positive id. The consequences should be no more severe than a ban on running for office or holding a city job that requires the ability to feel empathy or care about consequences, similar to a colorblindness test failure precluding one from holding a position that requires color discrimination ability.
If psychopathy were to be presented as a disability to feel empathy or to care about consequences, rather than just evil, it would be far easier to pass legislation requiring screening. For most people the screening would be inconsequential personally, with the upside being the confirmation that their suspicions were correct about "that a-hole", whoever that person was.
To paraphrase what they say, if you aren't psychopath, what's there to worry about?
He is throwing "facts" around that are no better than suppositions.
Though this may seem like an odd thing to say, even if a trait is "in the genes" it doesn't mean it's inherited.
And as soon as you get into concepts like "mind" or "personality" you have gone beyond the realm of the body.
For one thing, we have triggering. This is a documented, real phenomenon, and it could apply to the problem of psychopathy to some degree.
And while psychopathy is the root cause of man-made evil on earth:
1. That is not the only evil we have to contend with.
2. People need a certain amount of challenge to maintain interest.
So: What is the root cause of psychopathy?
Anyone who has studied exopolitics knows that psychopathy is NOT a condition limited to earth humans. That rules out all the interesting theories about how we here on earth were specially chosen to be visited by this plague in order to "learn and grow" from it. Not.
Thus, even if we learn to handle it on our planet, we will still face it as our influence expands outwards.
Some day (I hope!) we will be able to laugh about how ignorant we used to be about this phenomenon and how to handle it. Right now, it doesn't seem that funny.
Scientology has taught you that you know something special that all the rest of us don't.
It's really not the case.
The suggestion that scanning people's brains is the answer to identifying psychopathy honestly scares me. That's a slippery slope to go down, especially since we still know so little about healthy brains and all their infinite variations let alone extremely disordered ones such as with psychopathy. What other kinds of "disorders" would eventually become a liability should they be hunted for and subsequently diagnosed via a brain scan? ADD? Bipolar? Kiss all the great creative people goodbye if it comes to that.
One need not have a brain scan in hand to know whether a dog is friendly or is about to bite. One only needs knowledge and experience to read the subtle clues a dog gives (just ask the Dog Whisperer). I would suggest the same goes for psychopaths. We are still almost completely ignorant as a culture about them and their behaviors. But as with any dangerous animal that we eventually learned to safely live with, we merely need to get educated.
Do psycho cops scare you?
There is ample evidence that the brains of psychopaths are structurally different from those of non-psychopaths. There is also evidence that there are genetic components. The Hare test is also indicative of psychopathy. Taken together with a background check they are fairly definitive.
They MUST be prevented from acquiring the power to harm others.
You may be aware of Bruce Lipton's work demonstrating that genes are "dormant" until triggered by environmental factors. Which is to say, there's no such thing as being "genetically predisposed" to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or anything else, presumably including psychopathy. Worth a look.
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Some of the behavior we're seeing, however, seems to go beyond psychopathy . For example, the BP/GoM oil disaster, and the Fukishma meltdown. Nuclear power in particular seems to require explanation beyond "greed and power." Even textbook psychos don't crap in their own nest...do they?
So I would suggest that at least "some" of the uber-psychopathy we're seeing is not of terrestrial origin, but the result of imported ET and/or inter-dimensional manipulation.
What's "psychopathic" to Terrans (Earthlings) may be "normal" to a Reptilian. Anyone know a good exo-psychologist?
Perhaps it's true, "where there's a will, there's a way".
Psychos need invisibility to get their psycho ways! Lets shine some light their way
Everybody must get scanned (Dylan paraphrased); I'll go first.