This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Does Our System Select for Incompetent Sociopaths?
Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
What is the shelf life of a system that rewards confidence-gaming sociopaths rather than competence?
Let's connect the dots of natural selection and the pathology of power.
In his 2012 book The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success, author Kevin Dutton described how the attributes of sociopathology are in a sense value-neutral: the sociopathological attributes that characterize a dangerous criminal may also characterize a cool, high-performing neurosurgeon.
As Dutton explains in his essay What Psychopaths Teach Us about How to Succeed (Scientific American):
Psychopaths are fearless, confident, charismatic, ruthless and focused. Yet, contrary to popular belief, they are not necessarily violent. Far from its being an open-and-shut case--you're either a psychopath or you're not--there are, instead, inner and outer zones of the disorder: a bit like the fare zones on a subway map. There is a spectrum of psychopathy along which each of us has our place, with only a small minority of A-listers resident in the “inner city.”
While there is obviously a place for high-functioning sociopaths in professions which reward those characteristics, what about sociopaths who substitute deviousness and deception for competence? For some context, let's turn to the Pathology Of Power by Norman Cousins, published in 1988.
Cousins was particularly concerned with the National Security State, a.k.a. the military-industrial complex, which at that point in U.S. history was engaged in a Cold War with the Soviet Empire. Cousins described the pathology of power thusly:
"Connected to the tendency of power to corrupt are yet other tendencies that emerge from the pages of the historians:
1. The tendency of power to drive intelligence underground;
2. The tendency of power to become a theology, admitting no other gods before it;
3. The tendency of power to distort and damage the traditions and institutions it was designed to protect;
4. The tendency of power to create a language of its own, making other forms of communication incoherent and irrelevant;
5. The tendency of power to set the stage for its own use.
In broader terms, we might add: the tendency of power to manifest hubris, arrogance, bullying, deception and the substitution of rule by Elites for rule of law.
Natural selection isn't only operative in Nature; it is equally operative in human organizations, economies and societies. People respond to whatever set of incentives and disincentives are present. If deceiving and conning others is heavily incentivized, while integrity and honesty are punished, people will gravitate to running cons and embezzlement schemes.
What behaviors does our Status Quo reward? Misrepresentation, obfuscation, legalized looting, embezzlement, fraud, a variety of cons, gaming the system, deviousness, lying and cleverly designed deceptions.
Let's connect the pathology of power and the behaviors selected by our Status Quo. What we end up with is a system that selects for a specific category of sociopaths: those whose only competence is in running cons.
No wonder we have a leadership that is selected not for competence but for deviousness. What's incentivized in our system is spinning half-truths and propaganda with a straight face and running cons that entrench the pathology of power.
What is the shelf life of a system that rewards confidence-gaming sociopaths rather than competence? Unless we change the incentives and disincentives, the system is doomed.
Of related interest:
The Normalization of Sociopathology in America (October 16, 2010)
The Federal Reserve and the Pathology of Power (November 18, 2010)
The Banality of (Financial) Evil (November 9, 2010)
»
- 16088 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
Hayek answered this in 1944 in "The Road to Serfdom," Chapter 10, "Why the Worse Get on Top."
Just as the choice architect who sets out to plan economic life will soon be confronted with the alternative of either assuming dictatorial powers or abandoning his plans, so the totalitarian dictator would soon have to choose between disregard of ordinary morals and failure.
It is for this reason that the unscrupulous and uninhibited are likely to be more "successful" in a society tending toward totalitarianism.
http://www.savageleft.com/poli/rts-ten.html
Road to Serfdom is like the "Owner's Manual" for totalitarianism. The chapter on how a legislative body slowly gives up its powers will read like a biography for the DC US Congress.
"New chapter found: 'Why the Guillotines Rise to the Occasion.'"
Woodchipper technology has advanced in the interim.
But your woodchipper burns fossil fuel and is not 'green' like my guillotine. I can cleanse society and earn 'carbon-credit' as well.
/sarc
No. Competent psychopaths selected a system to keep themselves in power. The "system" was co-opted not long after its foundation.
To imply it's "the system" that's putting them into power means the victims of all of this brought it upon themselves, and I don't accept that this is the case after watching the efforts TPTB and media go through to keep legitimate, non-psychopaths from getting elected.
Re: I don't accept that this is the case after watching the efforts TPTB and media go through to keep legitimate, non-psychopaths from getting elected.
But, that IS the system.
Politics and "the corporate ladder" is nothing except a vetting system to find the best sociopaths. Those doing the vetting are selecting the sociopaths who will keep "the system" working for the most sociopathic.
It's a very simple ranking and vetting system.
Absolutely, I just gave you my first vote up:)
Precisely.
I agree but have you though about why the majority who will lose allow the sociopathic system to get built right under their collective noses. They are like bread and circus kids, fed a steady diet of candy by the sociopaths until they are too disoriented to resist. And those who show signs of waking up are assasinated, either in body or character. As regards understanding the rules of engagement as it applies to free will, humanity is still very much in its infancy, even though the human knowledge base contains the freedom code it is very weakly disseminated.
"What is the shelf life of a system that rewards confidence-gaming sociopaths rather than competence? Unless we change the incentives and disincentives, the system is doomed"
The system is doomed. Human nature never changes. Just look at a chart of the Dow Industrials. The same pattern repeats over and over again. How many empires have risen and fallen? The pattern repeats, over and over again.
Ben Franklin said it is a republic- if you can keep it. The same pattern is whittling away the U.S. republic, over time.
Who ever lies the biggest and the best end up with the most power.
This is why the democrats and pseudo-republicans have been in power for most of the last 100 years.
Re: democrats and pseudo-republicans
There are only sociopath and (R)etards and (D)umbasses who vote for them.
Is a pseudo-republican somebody who voted FOR the patriot act?
I would say so
it is even worse than that
one can not be elected without having to be compromised of some kind of criminal activity
so that once elected you can be kept under control
I suspect it has something to do with short term gain and no consquences for yourself. It is the environment the Fed has fostered. We need to face the reality that it is far easier to break something for profit than to build something for profit. Growth and productivity will be stunted while the breakers and the builders exist in the same space. If there are no rules or punishments for destructive, even SELF-destructive actions, within banking or the economy, nothing can possibly be built.
Looking at our current system, I can tell a few things are in our future. The USD will collapse. The economy will continue to collapse. People will starve. Force will be used to protect those who have power.
You guys have to read the book "Political Ponerology" explains group psychopathology dynamics etc, excellent, although not light reading. The initial author had to throw his reasearch into the fire fleeing communist Poland and had to start fresh. Also the Lucifer Effect is good. This issue is the crux of our problems, this small population has controlled mankind too long and the solutions are actually quite simple. We have the technology to test for empathy easily now.
Re: We have the technology to test for empathy easily now
I would be MUCH more worried about sociopaths creating bullshit for the dumbasses, that there's a test for empathy when - in fact - the test is for dumbassness and those who can spot the sociopaths are eliminated.
Technology seldom leads to freedom (as the "patriots" who support the NSA haven't learned yet).
I see your point and that would be a real concern. It would have to be done in a way that only people holding public office and industry leader types would be tested. They would try to get out of it for sure because they would all fail and they would try to unleash it against us. It is the only solution though, it has to be made to work. Otherwise we might as well prepare ourselves and our children for the mines and the ovens... it's inevitable with paths in power. Besides, they are already using similar technology against you, I say it's our turn. http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/july-2012/the-language-of-psychopaths
The only other alternative I can think of was an ancient Greek method I read about years ago... that would require overhaul of the whole system... plus their system did fall to those bastards eventually.
The solution is education. Everyone needs to understand that these people exist and are a part of the population.
The monsters we put into horror movies are metaphors for the people round us. Werewolves, vampires, ghouls, zombies are all just exagerations of human traits. We need to teach people to be aware they exist.
The more power we give people the greater the skepticism over their motives we should have. The greatest skepticism should be shown to all "leaders".
Great suggestion - thank you. I have the book coming from Amazon as I write this.
"Psychopaths are fearless, confident, charismatic, ruthless and focused. Yet, contrary to popular belief, they are not necessarily violent."
My education into sociopathy came from my marriage to my ex. Sociopaths delight in making other people their tools, so while it often appears they are not being violent, usually that is only because you haven't figured out who she is using to carry out her violent intent. When you don't realize this is going on, often it's YOU. That means you've been duped into acting as her apath.
My epiphanies came as I moved into anarchism. It was bound to end. It did. Finally.
Oh, btw: She's a banker.
"No wonder we have a leadership that is selected not for competence but for deviousness. What's incentivized in our system is spinning half-truths and propaganda with a straight face and running cons that entrench the pathology of power."
Is it only our "leadership" that's devious? Or is it a large portion of our population? I can see the down votes already, but think seriously about that idea.
No, they are also the ones clawing their way to power wasting everyone in their path that they percieve as competition or just because it's fun.
It is typical for a human to want to satisfy their unease (needs and wants) by utilizing the smallest possible amount of energy. This instinct drives us to become efficient. A moral human does not cross the boundary of satisfying his own desires at the deliberate demise of another person.
Immoral sociopaths control greater numbers of typical people by using this trait. They offer bread and circuses to the mob and back that up with skillful and specious rationalizations to make it look like a good thing. By the time they are done, conning a free lunch looks like the only game in town and everybody starts to wonder whose gonna do the cooking.
Sociopaths only have a few weaknesses.
1) They cannot evade their own history of destructive behavior.
2) Are compelled to talk in codes and riddles, where a phrase said about one thing actually applies to something else. The phrase is accurate though if you know the real connection. All sociopaths "suffer" from this because it makes them feel superior to the rest of us "dumbasses".
The code is the same for all of them, and once you learn it, you can easily see right through them.
People say they have no fear but i disagree. All they do have is fear. Fear of getting caught, fear of being found out, fear of being rejected.
I would know, i married one and i can tell you that these people are really just robot sharks.
such an existance can only be pitied really. Most people dont realize just how rich they really are compared to these kind of people. They hate you and they fear you, which is why they must do the things they do.
Your right they have a strange speech pattern where they confuse emotional words with other more general terms. I guess it's because they don't really understand the emotional terms, they don't feel those things, they are mimics. I can't remember what they call it. George Bush used to do it all the time. Of course he was flat retarded so may be a bad example.
Yep, I thought about it a lot. George Jr. was simply an idiot with plenty of backing. Cheney, Clinton, and Bush Sr. were out and out psycopaths. George Jr. was just a stupid bitch of his father and Cheney.
Sociopaths are like the bubonic plague, they are contagious to other budding or potential sociopaths, and wreak havoc and destruction in families, businesses and institutions. There is a saying that a liar is worse than a murderer. I was married to a sociopath and can attest that it is well worth learning to recognise and neutralize them, they can ruin a bunch of lives. Unfortunately you have to experience one of them close up to understand what I am saying.
ALL SYSTEMS SELECT FOR INCOMPETENT SOCIOPATHS. it's systems as a whole that are the emergent phenomena turning inherently psychopathic portion of humanity----the power lusting portion------into action. but hey, sometimes powerful lusting leaders accomplish decent things. they're not always bad.
THAT IS WHY OUR CONSTITUTION STRIVES TO PUT THE RESTRAINTS UPON GOVERNMENT, INSTEAD OF ON PEOPLE.
restrain the system and you don't need to worry about 'psychopaths' on a mass level. vigilant protection of yourself and your property is sufficient to guard against one off psychopethic attempts to steal and kill and rape.
however, this is insufficient when the state is the agressor. who watches the watchmen?
p.s. charles hugh smith you can suck my balls you communist state worshiper. youre only complaint is that you are not the psychopath in power. when you start being more honest about your communist tendencies, pretending not to lust after power yourself---i will take you with less of a grain of salt. anyone accusing me of divide and conquer commenting go fuck yourself. i have an opinion , eat it.
Re: THAT IS WHY OUR CONSTITUTION STRIVES TO PUT THE RESTRAINTS UPON GOVERNMENT, INSTEAD OF ON PEOPLE.
Are you talking about Corporate People, or human people?
smart-n-savvy corporpersons.
Dollarmedes
If only you had the data.
We "contributed" far more than we'll ever receive; what we contributed in our early working years (60s/70s) went to pay our parents and grandparents, but later went to pay a generation younger than we are! Husband and I would gladly abstain from any more "help" from the goverment if only we could get back our "investment" minus what we've been "paid". Please refrain from assuming everyone on s.s. wants it; talk at the boomers (your grandparents, parents, yourself?) who spent everything they (you?) earned with both hands and now want more than they (you?) contributed.
Re; Husband and I would gladly abstain from any more "help" from the goverment if only we could get back our "investment" minus what we've been "paid".
Sorry, the intergenerational wealth transfer game is non-refundable. But, thanks for playing.
If the young people were smart they'd not play the game, but that's very difficult to do (especially as young people tend to not believe their parent's generation is actually screwing them).
No humans better than incompetent sociopaths to retard the police while controlling the atms for their pre-revolutionary uk masters of disguise.
After being taken out of a job by one of these types I studied and found some helpful things in the literature that I have since noticed in the real world:
1) After the path makes a statement they will scan your facial expression trying to detect if you are buying their bullshit. It is very noticeable. They are purported to be experts on body language and expression because they have to be.
2) They have no qualms with asking personal and invasive questions either privately or in groups. They of course don't want to get to know you, they are looking for something to cudgel you with later. They will add this to a whole montage of lies or a frame job. If someone does this follow your gut and tell them to fuck off. No seriously, engage them covertly emediately. They will eat your lunch most certainly anyway but atleast you fought back.
3) Female paths almost always play the harmless maiden in distress, if you buy into it they will destroy your life.
4) Charm... Charm is actually a superficial trait, it is inauthentic by definition. Not that everybody that is enjoyable has this problem but still a potential red flag. They also tend to be surrounded by minions of narcicistic personality types, apparently they are easily manipulated through flattery. Identify their minions.
5) By the time you have detected them it is probably already to late they are ten steps ahead of you, better luck next time, this is their game... educate yourself.
6) There is discussion lately about combining the terms psychopath, sociopath and malignant narcicist. Probably necessary, if they do we are talking about possibly 8% of the population. Seriously, educate yourself you are gonna need it.
#3 many will do so regardless, it's just the nature of the gender & culture
#1 is teachable, NLP has a body-language component. Neurolinquistic Programming. It is NOT very noticeable: no one knows when I'm scanning their body language because I'm doing it before any social contact. My nature never changes outwardly while doing this. Yours shouldn't either, scanning or being scanned. This can take milliseconds. Subconscious scan-and-conclusion will happen regardless of training to do so. The real trick is learning how to read your own subconscious response at the same time as quickly forming a conscious conclusion & not being so distracted by anything new you learn in that moment so it's not obvious you noticed anything.
#2 is indeterminate as many gossipy or overly-friendly people do this also, and many other people feel if you don't ask/answer such questions you are anti-social. This is a changing trend as the larger social structure of many cultures is becoming too open with personal details, sharing online & in person, and so conversely feels compelled to ask the same things they'd share. I don't like this. It's throwing off my radar for normality while I refuse to disclose a lot of things and people seem to get more uncomfortable. They're not sociopaths questioning me, they're sheeple who are now accustomed to sharing too much all the time.
What our society rewards and promotes is someone who is always perceived as just barely within the law. And to live here you often have to push or more likely pull the law in the direction of what benefits you. Still giving the perception of being within the law. And these are the people we follow that create our societies reality borders.
And currently we have large banks, bankers and elite outside of regular people law, having created their own bubble of laws to follow, which is now governed by only them.
I'll differ a little on that.
Due to energy, time & constraints imposed by empire & police-state a person is left with the as-always need for resources and has fewer ways to get those resources, and fewer resources to get for a non-decreasing amount of time+energy+complexity.
It's only nature for adaptation to require harder effort to get resources in this situation.
As it happens if what is lawful becomes more difficult, if what is non-criminal becomes impossible for the goal (survival via resources), then all that's left is criminal and/or deceptive activity.
So I differed a little, not a lot really, from your comment.
I took a sales class once where they were recommending taking a different approach for each type of prospect. The prospect types were:
Avoider
Affiliator
Achiever
Manipulator
Power boss
Most people have a mixture of types but all have a predominate type. From my experience it seems people are type-stamped right out of the womb. At the top you will typically find Manipulator and Power boss. Right under them you'll find Avoiders and Affiliators. Achievers are usually off by themselves.
Avoiders and Affiliators don't take their Manipulator / Power boss' place. A new Manipulator / Power boss with his own collection of Avoiders and Affiliators moves into vacated top positions.
Not necessarily so. A manipulator in the right environment may have no choice but to be a power-boss, not wanting it, but wanting to avoid problems by using manipulation & finding only that position offers the advantage.
You guys are working too hard; Hayek had it down. In a system that rewards political acume, not least the charismatic fraudster, the mere production of valuble goods and service is relegated to the deep back bench.
Politics does not know, nor ever intends to know, logic, common sense, history, results, the limits of human skill and intellegience, flaws in the human spirit, or even which way the sun comes up in the morning or whether gravity pulls down.
Sociopaths make the world go round.