When Pathocracy Crushes Democracy

When leadership becomes psychopathic

“In the same way that corporations can be brought to their knees by the behaviour of a small number of disordered individuals in high positions, our whole societies – and the world itself – are being badly damaged by the actions of a small number of disordered politicians in positions of high power. And more than anyone else, psychologists and other mental professionals have a moral duty to help”— Dr. Steve Taylor, The Problem of Psychopathy  ( link to full article below)

It has been said all the great ideas have been expressed. What remains is to act on them. This has never been so true as today where pure evil has eclipsed virtue, sanity and democracy. It is as if ethical behaviors and political integrity never existed. Pathocracy freezes us in time and place captive to psychopathic elites pursuing their delusional ambitions.

Pathocracy is nothing new, but this is the first time in history it has so thoroughly devastated and threatened a whole civilization, and the world, for a whole complex of reasons. The most immediate are too much power in to few hands, the wrong hands, and a complete lack of accountability. We have also been an unconscious civilization where historic illiteracy is rampant, a corrupted propagandist media has prevailed, and weapons of mass distraction abundant.

Our societies are destroyed by the very things we don’t talk about, as it is human nature to, “pass the buck”. It is also essential for tyrannies to make sure the relevant ideologies and issues are never addressed, as this is the only way they can sustain power and dominance— Chaos, and anarchy are among their weapons of choice.

The invective of the West directed at the East has become more shrill and desperate leading to what is now World War III. The West is waning and the East prospering. Western democracy is in full collapse. Incapable of making rational adjustments to a changing world order western elites have circled the wagons and are now running a full blown Pathocracy. As Dr. Steve Taylor points out above the last thing we need is more military interventions, the need for psychological interventions is urgent.

Do we really want our complex prospering societies destroyed by incompetent and criminal political thugs. We need “psychological interventions” to ensure only qualified and capable candidates are allowed in key positions.

Would we vote for a presidential candidate who finished at the bottom of his law class and committed plagiarism in law school? Would we vote for a candidate known to be a malignant narcissist?

Politicians wield tremendous power with few credentials for doing so. They function in a system where cronyism prevails over merit. Leadership choices are made on superficial and specious assumptions where too often the best qualified candidate is passed over and the odious pack mentality dominates. Political parties too often pick the most saleable candidate over the most competent. Voters are also part of the problem because we vote for candidates based on superficial assumptions and a less than critical eye.

The following content is a copy and paste from the internet courtesy of The Pathocracy Blog. I invite readers to go through the twenty characteristics and check off what you think are applicable to our times and this poly crisis.

Lobaczewski’s book on Political Ponerology is an important reference as he did much of the original research on ponerology.

This blog was published in 2014:

The Pathocracy Blog

What is a Pathocracy?

Definition of Pathocracy

Definition: pathocracy (n). A system of government created by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society of normal people (from Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, by Andrew Lobaczewski)

Pathocracy

from Greek pathos, “feeling, pain, suffering”; and kratos, “rule”

A totalitarian form of government in which absolute political power is held by a psychopathic elite, and their effect on the people is such that the entire society is ruled and motivated by purely pathological values.

A pathocracy can take many forms and can insinuate itself covertly into any seemingly just system or ideology. As such it can masquerade under the guise of a democracy or theocracy as well as more openly oppressive regimes.

Characteristics:

1. suppression of individualism and creativity.
2. impoverishment of artistic values.
3. impoverishment of moral values; a social structure based on self-interest and one-upmanship, rather than altruism.
4. fanatical ideology; often a corrupted form of a valid viable ‘trojan’ ideology which is perverted into a pathological form, bearing little resemblance to the substance of the original.
5. intolerance and suspicion of anyone who is different, or who disagrees with the state.
6. centralized control.
7. widespread corruption.
8. secret activities within government, but surveillance of the general population. (In contrast, a healthy society would have transparent government processes, and respect for privacy of the individual citizen).
9. paranoid and reactionary government.
10. excessive, arbitrary, unfair and inflexible legislation; the power of decision making is reduced/removed from the citizens’ everyday lives.
11. an attitude of hypocrisy and contempt demonstrated by the actions of the ruling class, towards the ideals they claim to follow, and towards the citizens they claim to represent.
12. controlled media, dominated by propaganda.
13. extreme inequality between the richest and poorest.
14. endemic use of corrupted psychological reasoning such as paramoralisms, conversive thinking and doubletalk.
15. rule by force and/or fear of force.
16. people are considered as a ‘resource’ to be exploited (hence the term “human resources”), rather than as individuals with intrinsic human worth.
17. spiritual life is restricted to inflexible and indoctrinare schemes. Anyone attempting to go beyond these boundaries is considered a heretic or insane, and therefore dangerous.
18. arbitrary divisions in the population (class, ethnicity, creed) are inflamed into conflict with one another.
19. suppression of free speech – public debate, demonstration, protest.
20. violation of basic human rights, for example: restriction or denial of basic life necessities such as food, water, shelter; detainment without charge; torture and abuse; slave labor.

Additional reading:

The problem of pathocracy by Dr. Steve Taylor

The Book