Déjà Vu ~ Times: July 2023

Thursday, July 13, 2023

The Garden Path to Pathocracy?

IF “pathocracy” means “the type of political system in which psychopaths rule”¹ would we recognize it if we saw it? And if we did recognize it, would we do anything about it or would we prefer to affix a label: “conspiracy theory”² as we continued our stumbling stroll down the serpent-strewn “garden path”³?

Frankly, nigh all of us have been on the garden path for some time; that's why we are in these dire straits of ignorance, distraction, denial, apathy, and misplaced trust; so here are two short upgrades to our awareness base:

#1: The Psychology of Psychopaths - Predators who Walk Among Us

The Psychology of Psychopaths - Predators who Walk Among Us
(Academy of Ideas | July 11, 2023 | Time 13:43 min.) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOyLraNMXM0 or at their website:
https://academyofideas.com/2023/07/the-psychology-of-psychopaths-predators-who-walk-among-us/

In the concluding paragraph, the Academy of Ideas speaker gives this warning (beginning circa min. 11:44):

While psychopaths have plagued all societies throughout history, the problem of their existence is amplified by contemporary trends toward political centralization. Governments are reaching their tentacles into ever more areas of life, global institutions are attempting to place the entire globe under the same yoke of tyranny, and developments in technology are creating the potential for a form of totalitarian rule that is far more invasive than anything that has come before. As psychopaths crave power, as they are naturally charismatic, skilled liars, and unconstrained by empathy, fear, anxiety, and guilt, it is reasonable to surmise that some psychopaths gravitate towards, or are actively established in, positions of political power. In his book Political Ponerology, the Polish psychiatrist Andrzej Łobaczewski proposed the name pathocracy for the type of political system in which psychopaths rule, and unless more people are aware of the threat of this predatory class, this type of rule may become a full-blown reality.
“I shall accept the denomination of pathocracy for a system of government…wherein a small pathological minority takes control over a society of normal people….if an individual in a position of political power is a psychopath, he or she can create an epidemic of psychopathology in people who are not, essentially, psychopathic…Under such conditions, no area of social life can develop normally, whether in economics, culture, science, technology, administration, etc. Pathocracy progressively paralyzes everything.”
Andrzej Łobaczewski, Political Ponerology

#2: SHOCKING: Top 10 Professions for Psychopaths!

SHOCKING: Top 10 Professions for Psychopaths!
(Triggernometry | Feb 14, 2023 | Time 10:04 min) at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s90iCHLVazs
Full episode at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL4PyLEi8jY

Does this list of professions help explain the last three years and the “epidemic of psychopathology in [other] people who are not, essentially, psychopathic”?

#1 CEOs
#2 Lawyers
#3 Media (TV/Radio)
#4 Sales people
#5 Surgeons
#6 Journalists
#7 Police
#8 Clergy
#9 Chefs
#10 Civil Servants

By knowing these things, will we be any better prepared for the next double-barreled assault by people without conscience (aided by their naïve or infected acolytes) managing another “crisis of caring” — a crisis that must not be allowed to go to waste⁴?

Let us pray (every day, all day) for a great awakening to the reality of our national and global pathocracies.

-------------------------------------------/
1. from Political Ponerology, by Polish psychiatrist Andrzej Łobaczewski as quoted in vlog The Psychology of Psychopaths - Predators who Walk Among Us (Academy of Ideas | July 11, 2023 | Time 13:43 min.) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOyLraNMXM0 or at their website:
https://academyofideas.com/2023/07/the-psychology-of-psychopaths-predators-who-walk-among-us/
2. Conspiracy Theory
https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-conspiracy-option.html
https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2019/10/conspiracy-deny-ers-in-nutshell.html
https://dejavu-times.blogspot.com/2022/11/a-short-message-to-news-reporters.html
3. • “Garden path” refers to the saying “to be led down [or up] the garden path,” meaning to be deceived, tricked, or seduced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden-path_sentence
• lead (someone) down/up the garden path
idiom / informal / : to deceive (someone) : to cause (someone) to go, think, or proceed wrongly https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lead%20%28someone%29%20down%2Fup%20the%20garden%20path
4. Rahm Emanuel?: https://freakonomics.com/2009/08/quotes-uncovered-who-said-no-crisis-should-go-to-waste/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/03/25/lets-make-sure-this-crisis-doesnt-go-waste/
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Winston_Churchill (see under "Disputed" at bottom of Wikiquote article)

Revolving Accounts

"The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us." (OT:Ecclesiastes 1:9-10)

"Dwell in the past and you'll lose an eye. Forget the past and you'll lose both eyes." (Old Russian Proverb)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS SITE HAS NOW BEEN REPLICATED (as of July 7, 2020) at https://dejavu-times.ca

Over time, this blog will contain:
Thoughts & observations
Virtual accounts (va)
Déjà vu quotes
Sketch-Stories
Poems

Déjà Vu ~ Times blog © 2008 - 2020 by SMSmith (unless otherwise noted). Some Rights Reserved. See Creative Commons License at the end of this column/page. NOTE: all quotes from others are subject to the terms of their copyrights and do not fall under my CC licensing.

Déjà Vu ~ Times blog was established April 24, 2008 while the author was living in southern Utah.

My World / Transworld View

(Subject to change over time: experience/learning/ evidence)

▪ Life is a three-act drama with pre-mortal, mortal, and post-mortal stages.
▪ The second act boils us down toward test one:^[1] the test of power.
▪ Abusers of power lose it in Act Three when justice and equity take the bench.
▪ Tipping points happen—over time and a fulcrum.
▪ Motes and beams are everywhere.[2]
▪ Folly is a shadow of every ism, including capitalism.
▪ Money talks louder than morals—all the way to the tipping point.
▪ The direction you are facing, matters.[3]
▪ Extremism in the defense of liberty is extremism.[4]
▪ When the blind follow the blind, it is time to blow the whistle.[5]
▪ Opposites attract the same lobbyists.
▪ Solon of Athens espoused, “Nothing in excess;” laissez-faire capitalists pursue “Everything in excess” (except the costs of gross profit).
▪ “Simplify” displayed on the counter-top of a new 21,000 sq. ft. home does not compute.
▪ High fructose corn syrup is not the staff of life. Unfortunately, sweets can twirl your teeth.
▪ Revolving doors between government and business do not admit sufficient fresh air.
▪ The common good doesn’t seem to be very common.
▪ N. American football is a testosterone pageant in tights.[6]
▪ Exploitation is a delusion of grandeur. Stewardship is a grander conclusion.
▪ The excesses of major religions occur when members fail their espoused values. The excesses of ideological tyrannies occur when tyrants act upon theirs.[7]
▪ Praise is best deflected toward God.
▪ Too many who say, “I do, I do,” don’t.
▪ Electronic media has become the Roman Coliseum of the 21st Century.
▪ The First Law of Attraction[8]: the Devil is more obsessed with persons striving to do and be good than with persons who are not.
▪ The trans-rational[9] is beyond most of us, so if it’s “turtles all the way down,”[10] maybe it is “revelation all the way up.”[11]
▪ Egoism accounts for 80% of human problems. The remaining 27% lies with rhetoric and propaganda.

In the near words of Groucho Marx, “These are my [views]; if you don’t like them, I have others.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[1] New Testament: Matt. 4:2-4—The first temptation presented to Jesus, to misuse His power to satisfy self-interest/-will/-gratification.
[2] Ref: Matthew 7:3-5
[3] Old Testament: Jer. 32:33
[4] A Barry Goldwater phrase “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” A phrase applauded by some of the GOP. (Suggestion: reverse liberty and justice to see if it sounds more palatable, or is the latter half merely castor-oil for the first?)
[5] Ref: Matthew 15:14
[6] Observation of a friend, MS, who wishes to remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
[7] Ref: Ravi Zacharias
[8] Ref: Adam & Eve; Biblical Job; Jesus in the Wilderness; CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, etc., etc., etc.
[9] Ref: Flatland by Edwin Abbott. In summary, circles, squares and other flatlanders can’t get a fix on spheres and cubes; can’t quite reason themselves into the properties of those in 3-D space. Enlightenment of things beyond (i.e., trans-) Flatland takes condescension from those above & beyond. Any parallels here in 3-D?
[10] Google this phrase if you have not heard of it. It’s just one way of saying we don’t have a rational explanation for some things.
[11] Conditional on the will of the Revelator and the willingness/ ability of the revelatee to receive.

About SMS

A few 6-to-7-Word Memoirs:
▪ Hope for the world comes and goes.
▪ Loves to read more than eat.
▪ Loves to think more than eat.
▪ Eats too much while reading and thinking.
▪ Always running out of time and daylight.
▪ Finds extremes too far from the center.
▪ Troubled by the world’s failure of memory.
▪ Has a tendency to counsel God.
▪ Learned gratitude before it was too late.
▪ Apparently hasn't learned enough gratitude yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No Comments Rationale

1) Time & more needful priorities;
2) Problems observed with many open-comment blogs as so bluntly expressed at http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/comment-policy/ ;

3) People are free to post divergent or convergent views on their own blogs;
4) Learning from comments here would be preferable, but— (see 1, 2, & 3).

Déjà Vu ~ Times

Thursday, July 13, 2023

The Garden Path to Pathocracy?

Revolving Accounts

Search Déjà Vu ~ Times

SMS Blogs

Blog Archive

Labels/Titles

My World / Transworld View

About SMS

EU Cookie Notice

Blog Title Credit