POAP 11 : THE DAMAGE THEY DO! - PART ONE
Just a reminder, a psychopath is the same thing as a narcissist, except the psychopath is also sadistic, sometimes to the point of scheming to kill people, and also of killing people. Both creatures have in common a huge deficiency in experiencing empathy. Both think they are the be all and end all. Both subvert most ends to their own egos and schemes. Both are manipulative and dishonest. Both are selfish, like children or animals, and employ their higher brain to serve this primitive selfishness. Both are emotionally, socially and actually irrational and destructive, although many of them may succeed in professions such as law, politics or the media, where manipulative and deceptive rationalisation can be valued. The same with gaining money from illicit enterprises such as prostitution, gun-running, counterfeiting, etc., just because someone makes money in established professions does not mean that he or she does so ethically. Indeed, the people who make money in such careers are often the least economically and/or scientifically intelligent, and so, beneficial to society.
New readers are encouraged to go back to earlier posts in this series, or to explore my tags in general, to get a better idea of my ideas. Welcome, people of Bahrain! I always sense that, when there is an unusual increase of my readership in particular countries, there may be some kind of revolution manifesting there a few years later. Not that I am responsible. It just indicates a healthy increase of curiousity. Which always poses danger to any status quo, yo. Viva la inquisition!
And welcome to new readers in Tokyo and Goyang!
The general theme of this post is the general irrationality and dysfunction of narcissists and psychopaths, whom I shall just refer to, here, as, "Narcopaths." (I should call them 'narcipaths', but 'narcopaths' sounds better. I could also use the less scientific term, 'psycho freaks', but I want people to think I am completely objective and unopinionated. At least the stupid people).
If you think of society as a computer, you will notice that narcopaths are flaws in the circuitry or logic. They can be thought of as not agents which help bring up the overall strength or capacity of society, but who short-out society in the endless quest to subvert social means towards their own personal empowerment. They lower the general capacity of the network, while they increase the power only in local places, (such as at the top of the wealth pyramid). Just as elitism and empire empowers some people, it simultaneously damages many more people, thus leading to increasing incapacitation of the entire society/network. The will and pursuit of personal power, above social empowerment or capacitation, inevitably leads to a wake of mistakes and accidents and destroyed lives, which can generally be called social entropy. Increased noise means less signal, means decreased overall power for the system.
Social entropy does not just come from narcopaths. It also comes from the basic animal nature of humans, which Catholics call various kinds of, "sin." Social entropy comes from structural flaws which lead to want, need, envy, disappointment, rebellion, etc., in various groups of people. Sociel entropy comes from mass errors of cognition, or vain superstitions, or false idolotry. It can also come chance, from accidents, from skewed values, (from economics), and even from the weather. As I believe I have posted recently, people blame each other for the weather, so that, ultimately, climate change can lead to wars. Forces just bubble up in people and then get converted into emotions and words, etc., which can either work in the favour of the social system or against it. Fear of some new stranger - some witch - can galvanise a society into cohesive power, or it can also help tear a society apart.
How society can function is explored in theories of economics, to which game theory is related. I like game theory because it has a simpler mathematical logic than most of economics, and it takes cognitive choice and behaviour into consideration. For example, what is the chance that a person would make a particular choice, given only limitted information, but also if he or she carries a fair degree of irrationality, as via fear or desire? In game theory, we have learnt that a person can achieve the best outcome in a relationship not if he or she simply imitates-in-kind the other person's action, (tit-for-tat), nor if he or she tries to bulldoze the other person by constantly making the same, inconsiderate demand or charge each and every time. Of course, a persona also fails by doing nothing. All three of these strategies are predictable, and so may be exploited by the other person. If that other person is hip, and not some kind of flying monkey enabler.
Instead, it is known that the best strategy to use is one which combines tit-for-tat cooperation, with occasional big-move competition. So, move one, tit-tat. Move two, tit-tat. Move three, surprise! What this approach does is not only help player #1, but also player #2, and, most importantly, keep the game going, ad infinitum. So, this is a model for capacitation in society. It is not competition for its own sake, which is ultimately destructive for every one. It is not solely the selfish will for power, ditto. And it is not stupid-ass hippie hippie love love, which does nothing but invite the explloiters and narcopaths to come in and take control - take power. So, this is what works for society, for individuals, for evolution. (It also is related to just how entities may exist through time, phsyically, but that's an other topic).
I must note, however, that human beings do not live like they are playing such a basic game. Instead, relationsips and economies really involve many different games going on at the same time, and many different values and choises being traded off from game to game. Se, we as human have developed a way to manage this complexity of choice, and that is through moods, being emotional, going on hunches, following one's gut. In fact, we are actually processing a shitload of information that our narrow conscious mind can not deal with. So, it is very important to see and respect the emotions, because they play into the whole intricate formulae of interrelationship. Seeing and respecting emotions is the last thing narcopaths want, or know how to, do. They are stuck in the basic games of their childhood brains.
But, society also reduces most games to common denominators, which most significantly takes the form of denominations of money. As touched on above, we know that money is not a cure to life, or to society, in and of itself. A society entirely invested in money will only linger in a limbo of mediocrity, until social entropy just naturally brings it crashing down one day. We were born for progress. At least socially. As hunter-gatherers wandering around hoping for the next meal to magically apprear, fine. B ut as social beings, we are generally compelled to work for higher causes. Narcopaths are not this way. They have not developed the social brain, or the part of the psyche called the, "Superego." Instead, they are still out for the quick kill, the easy pay-off, and the antisocial pot of gold. Since they lack empathy, they feel just fine with lying and manipulating to get their way. And, again, some professions, in a money-oriented society, gain wealth and power this way. To the eventual detriment of the society.
Whether the game is just plain simple, i.e., "You do this for me, and I won't kill you," or simply through reduction, [or 'emergence'], even then the narcopaths often cheat. So, someone thinks they are in a cooperative arrangement with a narcopath, they then get shafted or dumped. Someone thinks they are tuned into some higher purpose with the narcopath, such as into their cult's mythology, and, boom, all those dreams are destroyed, as the narcopath runs off pursuing some new cheating game. I don't know if you might have caught Dateline(?) recently, about "Lou Castro," who conned people inoto making him rich, and then raped their kids, and so on, but this was an excellent example of the games that the selfish, animal-like, unempathetic narcopath plays. And, yessireebob, a wake of destruction, both material and emotional, is what they leave! Yet, they continue think they are right, and innocent! And they continue to try to convince others of this. Because, so long as they can get away with the lie? Well, then, that is morality. That is justice. Just ask their flying monkeys. Just look at their money!
Not only do narcopaths act in contradiction to the games useful to society, even while pretending to respect them, they virtually all hold a private view of the world as being one of dog-eat-dog, I'll-get-mine!, if-I-don't-someone-else-will, it's-the-other-person's-fault-for-being-so-stupid, he-who-owns-the-gold-makes-the-rules, I-own-it-so-I-can-tell-yo-what-to-do, if-it-isn't-illegal-then-it's-fair-game, if-I-can-get-away-with-it-then-it's-as-good-as-legal, and so forth. In other words, they have a private Machiavellian Mean World View, entitling them to exert force, or lies, or cheating, or harm, etc., on others, since they are them, and they come first, and they must survive - since the world is a jungle! Well, the world is a jungle to them because they are convinced that they are victims. So, no matter how much damage they do to everyone else, their self-pity forgives and justifies it all. They deserve it. Either because daddy showed them so much attention. Or Daddy showed them no attention at all. [This is in the literature - look it up] .. TBC...
New readers are encouraged to go back to earlier posts in this series, or to explore my tags in general, to get a better idea of my ideas. Welcome, people of Bahrain! I always sense that, when there is an unusual increase of my readership in particular countries, there may be some kind of revolution manifesting there a few years later. Not that I am responsible. It just indicates a healthy increase of curiousity. Which always poses danger to any status quo, yo. Viva la inquisition!
And welcome to new readers in Tokyo and Goyang!
The general theme of this post is the general irrationality and dysfunction of narcissists and psychopaths, whom I shall just refer to, here, as, "Narcopaths." (I should call them 'narcipaths', but 'narcopaths' sounds better. I could also use the less scientific term, 'psycho freaks', but I want people to think I am completely objective and unopinionated. At least the stupid people).
If you think of society as a computer, you will notice that narcopaths are flaws in the circuitry or logic. They can be thought of as not agents which help bring up the overall strength or capacity of society, but who short-out society in the endless quest to subvert social means towards their own personal empowerment. They lower the general capacity of the network, while they increase the power only in local places, (such as at the top of the wealth pyramid). Just as elitism and empire empowers some people, it simultaneously damages many more people, thus leading to increasing incapacitation of the entire society/network. The will and pursuit of personal power, above social empowerment or capacitation, inevitably leads to a wake of mistakes and accidents and destroyed lives, which can generally be called social entropy. Increased noise means less signal, means decreased overall power for the system.
Social entropy does not just come from narcopaths. It also comes from the basic animal nature of humans, which Catholics call various kinds of, "sin." Social entropy comes from structural flaws which lead to want, need, envy, disappointment, rebellion, etc., in various groups of people. Sociel entropy comes from mass errors of cognition, or vain superstitions, or false idolotry. It can also come chance, from accidents, from skewed values, (from economics), and even from the weather. As I believe I have posted recently, people blame each other for the weather, so that, ultimately, climate change can lead to wars. Forces just bubble up in people and then get converted into emotions and words, etc., which can either work in the favour of the social system or against it. Fear of some new stranger - some witch - can galvanise a society into cohesive power, or it can also help tear a society apart.
How society can function is explored in theories of economics, to which game theory is related. I like game theory because it has a simpler mathematical logic than most of economics, and it takes cognitive choice and behaviour into consideration. For example, what is the chance that a person would make a particular choice, given only limitted information, but also if he or she carries a fair degree of irrationality, as via fear or desire? In game theory, we have learnt that a person can achieve the best outcome in a relationship not if he or she simply imitates-in-kind the other person's action, (tit-for-tat), nor if he or she tries to bulldoze the other person by constantly making the same, inconsiderate demand or charge each and every time. Of course, a persona also fails by doing nothing. All three of these strategies are predictable, and so may be exploited by the other person. If that other person is hip, and not some kind of flying monkey enabler.
Instead, it is known that the best strategy to use is one which combines tit-for-tat cooperation, with occasional big-move competition. So, move one, tit-tat. Move two, tit-tat. Move three, surprise! What this approach does is not only help player #1, but also player #2, and, most importantly, keep the game going, ad infinitum. So, this is a model for capacitation in society. It is not competition for its own sake, which is ultimately destructive for every one. It is not solely the selfish will for power, ditto. And it is not stupid-ass hippie hippie love love, which does nothing but invite the explloiters and narcopaths to come in and take control - take power. So, this is what works for society, for individuals, for evolution. (It also is related to just how entities may exist through time, phsyically, but that's an other topic).
I must note, however, that human beings do not live like they are playing such a basic game. Instead, relationsips and economies really involve many different games going on at the same time, and many different values and choises being traded off from game to game. Se, we as human have developed a way to manage this complexity of choice, and that is through moods, being emotional, going on hunches, following one's gut. In fact, we are actually processing a shitload of information that our narrow conscious mind can not deal with. So, it is very important to see and respect the emotions, because they play into the whole intricate formulae of interrelationship. Seeing and respecting emotions is the last thing narcopaths want, or know how to, do. They are stuck in the basic games of their childhood brains.
But, society also reduces most games to common denominators, which most significantly takes the form of denominations of money. As touched on above, we know that money is not a cure to life, or to society, in and of itself. A society entirely invested in money will only linger in a limbo of mediocrity, until social entropy just naturally brings it crashing down one day. We were born for progress. At least socially. As hunter-gatherers wandering around hoping for the next meal to magically apprear, fine. B ut as social beings, we are generally compelled to work for higher causes. Narcopaths are not this way. They have not developed the social brain, or the part of the psyche called the, "Superego." Instead, they are still out for the quick kill, the easy pay-off, and the antisocial pot of gold. Since they lack empathy, they feel just fine with lying and manipulating to get their way. And, again, some professions, in a money-oriented society, gain wealth and power this way. To the eventual detriment of the society.
Whether the game is just plain simple, i.e., "You do this for me, and I won't kill you," or simply through reduction, [or 'emergence'], even then the narcopaths often cheat. So, someone thinks they are in a cooperative arrangement with a narcopath, they then get shafted or dumped. Someone thinks they are tuned into some higher purpose with the narcopath, such as into their cult's mythology, and, boom, all those dreams are destroyed, as the narcopath runs off pursuing some new cheating game. I don't know if you might have caught Dateline(?) recently, about "Lou Castro," who conned people inoto making him rich, and then raped their kids, and so on, but this was an excellent example of the games that the selfish, animal-like, unempathetic narcopath plays. And, yessireebob, a wake of destruction, both material and emotional, is what they leave! Yet, they continue think they are right, and innocent! And they continue to try to convince others of this. Because, so long as they can get away with the lie? Well, then, that is morality. That is justice. Just ask their flying monkeys. Just look at their money!
Not only do narcopaths act in contradiction to the games useful to society, even while pretending to respect them, they virtually all hold a private view of the world as being one of dog-eat-dog, I'll-get-mine!, if-I-don't-someone-else-will, it's-the-other-person's-fault-for-being-so-stupid, he-who-owns-the-gold-makes-the-rules, I-own-it-so-I-can-tell-yo-what-to-do, if-it-isn't-illegal-then-it's-fair-game, if-I-can-get-away-with-it-then-it's-as-good-as-legal, and so forth. In other words, they have a private Machiavellian Mean World View, entitling them to exert force, or lies, or cheating, or harm, etc., on others, since they are them, and they come first, and they must survive - since the world is a jungle! Well, the world is a jungle to them because they are convinced that they are victims. So, no matter how much damage they do to everyone else, their self-pity forgives and justifies it all. They deserve it. Either because daddy showed them so much attention. Or Daddy showed them no attention at all. [This is in the literature - look it up] .. TBC...