American Psychos

In the article "Why Does The World Feel Wrong?" the author compares those who have significant control over society to the clinical definition of a psychopath. This is certainly not the first time I've come accross this comparison and it's an intriguing concept to say the least.

Briefly researching the idea myself, I easily find this checklist from Minddisorders.com:

"The twenty traits assessed by the PCL-R [Psychopathy Checklist-Revised] score are:
*glib and superficial charm
*grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self
*need for stimulation
*pathological lying
*cunning and manipulativeness
*lack of remorse or guilt
*shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness)
*callousness and lack of empathy
*parasitic lifestyle
*poor behavioral controls
*sexual promiscuity
*early behavior problems
*lack of realistic long-term goals
*impulsivity
*irresponsibility
*failure to accept responsibility for own actions
*many short-term marital relationships
*juvenile delinquency
*revocation of conditional release
*criminal versatility"

Does that list not read like a virtual personality run-down of every corrupt politician, banker, lawmaker, and corporate CEO? The notion that psychopaths are in control of the world may not be as crazy at it initially sounds.

In order to maintain their stranglehold of power, it would likely be of great benefit to the supposed psychopaths to gain control of their victims, rather their victims impressionable minds, as soon as possible:

"It suggests people like this have control over the levers of power everywhere. We live at a time when the population at large cannot achieve its wants, yet few seem to know why. As one example, polls consistently indicate that educational matters concern the public, yet decade after decade, schooling gets quantitatively worse. What a mystery! Evidently, if we believe our well-meaning masters, 2,000 years of Western civilization has not yet determined effective ways to transmit key knowledge to younger generations. However, what happens if we suspend our belief in their benevolence for a moment and consider other possibilities? If schools fail to achieve their stated goals over several decades, might some groups see this as a success?

Inhibiting critical thinking in the masses obviously benefits the state and psychopaths. When overtly self-serving, irresponsible, illegal, immoral, irrational behavior gets treated as normal, we can conclude that the educational system works quite well for our masters."

America arguably has some of worst schools when compared to the rest of the civilized world and the only logical explanation for this, given that America is one of (if not THE) the richest and most powerful nations in the world, is because it's exactly what the American government has ordered for the general population. 

The government can miraculously bailout Wall Street and the auto industry with billions of dollars literally created from thin air at the expense of the undereducated taxpayer... yet something as important to a peaceful and sustainable society as education somehow continues a downward slide year after year. What a mystery indeed.

So why on Earth would any of our supposed 'leaders' in their right mind want to encourage an uneducated, blindly patriotic, population of overweight, pill popping, programmed robo-consumers? Might psychopaths view this as a success?

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe