America: Psychopath Nation
President Ted Bundy?
There is a lot of interest in psychopaths, especially serial killers.
The TV series Dexter ran nine seasons. Most serial killers get caught but some do not —so there are "successful" and "unsuccessful" serial killers. Dexter was successful.
The word "success" has a lot of connotations. In American society, "success" is positive. Everybody wants to be "successful" so we do not usually like to use the word when talking about criminals.
Recently, however, there is much talk of "successful psychopaths".
The kind I guess you can introduce to Mom.
Nobody quite agrees on psychopathy. Natural!—nobody agrees on evil, either.
Some researchers think that genetic psychopaths are just 1% of the population.
On the other hand, others think that psychopathy is not genetic at all-- but the result of environmental factors. Therefore— lots more around. Do not take candy from strangers.
Still others suppose the psycho thingis a mixture of genetics and nurturance.
The “professionals” don’t know. Of maybe don’t want to say. Some of them are probably psychopaths.
There is disagreement about the percentage of people with "psychopathic traits", with estimates as low as 3 to 4% in the general population —but —as high as 30 to 40% among — you guessed it —professionals, as lawyers, doctors, managers, CEOs—and other “successful" people.
Note that Kevin Dutton lumps saints spies and serial killers in with "psychopaths" who can somehow teach us to be "successful" -- like Bill, Elon, Jeff, and their ilk.
Salon (magazine) took this line of reasoning and applied it to politics in an article:
Why serial killers are drawn to politics
Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and other serial killers were active in politics.
Experts weigh in on the connection
The writers give Ted Bundy a lot of attention.
,,,,stories like Bundy's illustrate how the two passions — one evil and despised, the other neutral yet socially applauded — are rooted in similar parts of the human psyche. Both require a certain amount of grandiose thinking, and with it, self-involvement. Success in either endeavor depends heavily on being a skilled manipulator, and is rewarded with real power over actual human beings.
Suppose Bundy had got into politics. He was a man of average intelligence, but charming and a skilled manipulator.
Bundy worked for Republican candidates in Washington State . Then managed a grassroots campaign there to draft New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller for the presidency. In 1868
In 1972, Bundy worked to re-elect Gov. Daniel Evans, delivering insider information on Evans’ opponent which he obtained by infiltrating Rossellini's campaign pretending to be a college student.
"I'm not the least bit uncomfortable with what went, on," Bundy told the journal of record. "It was just part of political campaigning. You have to know what your opposition is saying and doing." In politics — lies— and dirty tricks— are good, right?
Bundy reportedly thought of becoming a lawyer to help him run for office!
Should I rest my case?
Imagine: a president who likes to kill
Turns out I'm really good at killing people. Didn't know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine. Not Bundy. Obama.
We came, we saw, he died. Hillary Clinton joking at the horrific killing of Qaddafi.
The death of 500000 dead Iraqi children was a very hard choice, but the price-we think the price is worth it. Madeline Albright
We should kill ‘em all”. Republican Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee, responding to the deaths of Palestinian children in Gaza.
You don’t have to be President to get into the act. Presidents lead. Killers follow.
Donald Trump?
‘Nuff said.
Governments of little Neros
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. (Actually it was a harp)
Genocide Joe is not musical.
But pretends to be horrified by civilian deaths even though he has the power to stop it at any time. Politically, he would lose AIPAC support if he did stop it. Morally, history would applaud. His decision was foreordained. Fuck history,
As America burns.
Not all politicians or their flunkeys are psychopathic.
But Bush, Obama and Biden are—and people like Madeline Albright, Hillary, and, of course, Blinken. They see children dead or dying and feel nothing. Like serial killers, they have only cognitive empathy.
For them, everything is about power and control. Combined with narcissism, you have a potent mix.
A whole government not of “little Eichmann”—who, by the way, was not a psychopath— but of little Neros.
Keep in mind that Hitler was neither a psychopath nor a sociopath. Mentally unhinged—but obviously so. He didn’t last long as a result. Successful psychopaths are smarter.
We, on the other, have am entire political class that only the Empathy-Disabled can join.
A government run by psychopaths is indicative a society that prioritizes "success" over emotional empathy —caring for others. That unfortunately is the US.
America is perhaps the first psychopath nation: It does not act as if it has considered that other countries have interior lives.
America-- the Psychopath Nation.
Rhizome Thoughts
We can't go backwards. Only neurotics, or, as Lawrence says, renegades, cheaters, attempt regression.
And this is because the white wall of the signifier, the black hole of subjectivity, and the machine of faciality (face) are really buttresses, the measure of our submissions, of our subservience, but we are born into them and against them we must struggle, with them we must unravel...
Only in the black hole of consciousness and subjective passion will we discover the captured, superimposed, transformed particles that we must revive for a living, non-subjective love, in which each one connects to the unknown spaces of the other without penetrating them and without conquering them, in which the lines are composed like broken line
I already posted this is as a note. But I did not explain what it meant to me.
America is a country continually trying to go backwards— always looking to the past, pretending to look forward— but drawn inevitably into the past, casting each of us into a black hole— of subjectivity, actuality and virtuality together.
We cannot go back. But past, present, and future coexist simultaneously in a quantum ontological state.
Still, it is in this blackhole, we can find ways to better universe. Better ways to love.
I am sure you have your own interpretation. If you do, please share.
Even our psychopaths are in decline as Rome had Nero playing the harp, but we get three chord Anthony strumming in Kiev.
Wait, Julian ... WHOA .... mentioning Joe Biden in the same column where you write of Ted Bundy? Really? Seems awful unfair to Ted Bundy. I mean, yeah, okay, Ted was bad, but putting him next to Joe Biden?