The essential merger of history and psychology
Elections are weapons of mass distraction providing us with very expensive front row seats to the theater of the absurd.
Direct self-observation is not nearly enough to know ourselves: we need history for the past flows within us in a hundred waves.
The condition of a people which has lost faith in its ancient history… and a constant search for novelty after novelty— Frederich Nietzsche 1878
I take politics and history as very important issues. We live in times when important legislated decisions and policies which impact on millions and even billions of peoples come into law. Too many legislators and so-called leaders are not qualified to be making such momentous decisions given the corruptions, willful ignorance and lethal ideologies they entertain. Half-baked sophomoric politicians do not qualify as state-persons practicing statecraft or leadership. They see politics as feathering their own nests, egos, pocket books, the ignoble art of betraying the public and everything that is decent. They have become the moronic Philistines, of the evilocracy.
Politicians and officials working for the empire reject diplomatic solutions as they require consensus and compromise where the empire’s power must be absolute and never challenged. Their monopoly must be absolute in every aspect.
Too many political zombies see politics as a winner-take-all sport, guided by frat boy mentalities, driven by outrageous ideologies, slandering history, walking away from personal integrities, and no concern for the common good or future consequences. They are chronic misfits running a catering service to the vested interests controlling them.
We have to be assured that those making the decisions are of sound mind and body, that indeed they have “the right stuff.”
To know history and politics is to know that we are now suffering the legacy of bad decisions, bad policy’s and atrocities that should never happen; yet our compulsive recidivism overwhelms us repeatedly.
Our political system is geared toward promoting incompetent peoples into high office, where they are left too long and with no accountability, with the added liabilities they can be dangerous psychopaths,narcissists or ideologues. Given the present situation these terms and more and are coming into common usage— as we retreat from democracy, to pathocracy to a deplorable and lawless evilocracy.
We are seeing how history and human psychology are not such strange bedfellows. To review history is to witness the horrific consequences of disordered minds holding absolute unaccountable power over others. Stalin, Mao, Hitler, and Pol Pot are four such examples. Ian Hughes dissects these in his book Disordered Minds, How dangerous Personalities are Destroying our Democracy.
Polish psychologist Andrew Lobaczewski did pioneering studies on the study of evil published as: Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes Paperback – April 1 2007 by Andrew M. Lobaczewski. Lobaczewski compiled his research under great duress as he was living under a repressive regime and his research had to be done in secrecy. Two drafts of his book were destroyed before the third was finally published.
Both writers make powerful convincing arguments that many people arrive as adults with deeply rooted psychological impairments that if they are allowed into positions of power can reek havoc on their societies.
Their findings are especially relevant today as the world faces many complex issues and we have to be assured those in high office have the qualifications and psychological profiles suited to the challenges they face. Politics is especially vulnerable as it is one of the least credentialed vocations people with varying intentions can enter easily. Where in the real world the screening and selection of personnel can be very thorough; in politics the selection is too laissez-faire and open to corruptions and cronyism.
Everybody has a right to run for office, but that right does not extend to having the keys to the kingdom handed to them. Psychologists are now suggesting those proceeding to high office must be subjected to psychological profiling; especially as research shows psychopaths are attracted to politics in large numbers.
If we ask ourselves why aging dysfunctional politicians are left to prevail along with dangerous psychopathic ideologues it is because the crypto-fascist corporatists want to discredit democratic government as this further empowers them. They want to kill government and fragment societies so they can easily control and manipulate them. For the beleaguered West this fragmentation may well be of long standing.
Political parties are unable to invigorate themselves and bring new more dynamic leadership, because the system is designed and corrupted to sustain mediocrity. True reformers and progressives are unwelcome. Demagogues and fake populists are more than welcome.
Netanyahu’s speech to the US Congress was an event of great historical importance. It showed how thoroughly corrupted our legislatures have become and how Jonathan Swift’s “Yahoos” populate them.
Politics and government are no longer at the center of our societies. They are no longer “the ruling class” but are now the catering class with their specious honorifics and transparent pretensions. Elections are weapons of mass distraction providing us with very expensive front row seats to the theater of the absurd.
El Bosco! One of my favorites