Very insightful and engaging writing! I guess it's true what Kant said about the only absolutely good thing being a good will, since anything else could be used as a tool for harm by someone with a malicious will. And similarly, the only absolute evil is an evil will, especially as manifested in psychopathy. It's amazing how much pain and suffering that relatively small demographic of psychopaths creates for the rest of humanity. The ideologies and political movements the psychopaths use are incidental, though it does seem that some ideologies and movements are more easily manipulated by psychopathic actors than others.
"The ideologies and political movements the psychopaths use are incidental, though it does seem that some ideologies and movements are more easily manipulated by psychopathic actors than others."
Indeed. @Daniel D - Since it's been a while since my forays into Kant, could you maybe point to a book/passage in his work that brings out this aspect well? (Or relatively well, given that it's Kant lol)
Whew! I had long suppressed the memory of reading him, and now I'm working through the trauma of being in an undergrad moral philosophy course all over again.... Kant was writing in response to Hume, and I only wish he had managed to write as clearly as Hume did!
Anyway, as I recall it was in "A Critique of Practical Reason." Confession: I did not read that book cover to cover but only excerpts, and it's been a while, so I can't recall specifically where in that book he shares that idea.
Well written and thought provoking essay. I have many thoughts, but this struck me at a gut level:
"I’d much rather form my own 'team' with the people I think best from a wide variety of existing 'teams.' I’d probably be a terrible soldier. Then again, I think I’d have a pretty stellar team. (Plus I can engage in a bit of inside baseball with my fellow weirdos.)"
Good storytelling (particularly in the recent past) includes a strong tradition of the motley crew of misfits and ragtag rebels, each of whom brings a unique talent to the table when it comes to their shared mission. This is the seed of truth that lurks in ludicrous postmodern bromides like "diversity is strength" (which, like many such carefully constructed lies has come to mean the opposite of it's seeming intent). But the underlying truth is there, hiding in plain sight; uniting in purpose while accepting a variety of different tactical approaches is the key to victory. Not only will it keep the enemy off guard, but the diversity of approaches may lead us all to deeper truths about the structure of reality on our path to that victory.
Well put, Mark! When it comes to a super-normal shared mission, I think the talent pool shrinks a lot. So it's almost a necessity to search outside your regular milieu in order to find the people necessary to fill all required roles.
Yeah. Tolkien figured this out after surviving war and mass atrocity. Gygax and other postmoderns commoditized and dilluted the notion afterward, but you still see the truth rearing its "ugly head" from time to time (I imagine there were even certain D&D groups that recaptured its spirit in their games). Even the intense celebration of "Stranger Things" (of which I have mixed feelings) seemed to prove this storied truth still spoke to the hearts of many people, even if they lost the language to describe it.
This struck me deeply too: "I’d much rather form my own 'team' with the people I think best from a wide variety of existing 'teams.' I’d probably be a terrible soldier. Then again, I think I’d have a pretty stellar team. (Plus I can engage in a bit of inside baseball with my fellow weirdos.)"
It feels like this has become my life strategy since ~2020, and a great upgrade to the quality of my relationships.
Excellent essay. I am very glad you brought forward the points about the range of diversity within groups, and that notion that psychopaths are destructive parts of their own groups, destructive tendencies pointed both inside and outside the group. I am working on an essay in a similar vein, and it will be super handy to cite this :)
The issue of internal diversity is where there whole DEI movement really drives me nuts in asserting that there shouldn't be different outcomes across subgroups. Even random chance would ensure some, but the fact that humans differ quite a bit in personality, talent and preferences, and those differences are tied to genetics and culture is huge. Yet, somehow, it is anathema that some groups would be more heavily represented doing some things than others.
Brilliant article, which I have read before, but enjoyed reading again (and now subscribed). One of the things I have noticed is in my studies of trauma and chronic illness, is that our institutions have become self-selecting and amplifying of broken people ( https://garysharpe.substack.com/p/trauma-at-the-institutional-level )
Good article and bibliography. I guess I am the only one here who was introduced to the concept of the "suppressive person" before I found out about the "psychopath" of psychology and psychiatry. We have our own test for this personality type, and while I could link to our video on the subject, I'm hoping someone else will discover it and find it interesting enough to share.
Somehow I don't think the woke social justice tribe insinuating itself in every institution would be much amenable to the speech by your theoretical Rattler leader. This or the Davos/transhumanist crowd . Or the jab true believers. This tribalism effect seems to be manifesting in the West as a kind of death cult. There is little rationalizing with that.
But as a former college baseball player who only occasionally watches professional sports for the talent and inspiration of it on both sides, I appreciate this essay and acknowledge much of the truth of it.
Yep, I agree. Our Rattler would need to take a different approach in that scenario. We're way past the point and scale of a bad Eagle usurping power. I'm afraid we might be in the "hunker down and pump out the samizdat" phase of this operation.
Hunker down, find your community, get skilled, knowledgeable and healthy and start building power bases to defend against globalized, centralized tyranny?
This article brought tears to my eyes, Harrison! Maybe because I've at completed The_Managerial_Class_On_Trial, but I judge this piece to be both accessible to a wider audience and extraordinarily helpful in bringing our attention on the problem of the enemy within. Thank you for this!
I hope your arguments make a strong impression on your readers.
Your point that dangerous people can show up inside any organized group is very important. As is the observation that people left to their own devices tend to organize and to take advantage of the strengths of each of their members. And then the group tends to defend ALL its members against personal attacks. Though these are mere observations, they are important.
I was quite young when I was first introduced to the idea that something like an "anti-social" personality actually exists. I was otherwise rather poorly educated in the subject of human psychology. But this "fact of life" made incredible sense to me, as it answered numerous questions I had about life on Earth as I was observing it. The point being made by my teacher was that those personalities that are the most active in undermining the lives of other people have a real talent in maintaining the secrecy of their activities. We are all familiar with some of the ways that a bad actor or group can cover its tracks.
I can only contribute some additional concepts for those who want a deeper understanding of the situation. I persist in this activity because it is my judgement that without a deeper understanding of the situation, we will never get out of it. And as I have noted, the key finding is that we are all immortal spiritual beings. This finding opens the door to a wealth of other information and paths of inquiry.
We have plugged many holes in our understanding with the evolutionary model. Though this may have some small usefulness, in the light of the above-mentioned finding, there is so much more data that can be brought to bear on these issues. I am particularly interested in the fact that these data seem to have led to innovations in mental therapy, education, and human organizations. I hope that others will also see this "disruptive" finding as worth pursuing further.
Love your choice of the group photo! Looking at it again today as I cited the article in a comment, I noticed the boy hanging upside down from the sign, and saw myself in him, ha ha! Having team members with different perspectives and strengths can make the team more capable, while having the team to deal with the more commonplace issues makes it possible for the outlier individual to not have to focus so much on the mundane.
Brilliant and insightful. This part particularly struck me as True: "In other words, ordinary people of one race have more in common—psychologically—with ordinary people of other races than they do with psychopaths in their own race. Or, to flip that around, psychopaths of different races have more in common with each other than they do with ordinary members of their own race.
Maybe the call is coming from inside the house?".
When it comes to attending to our own house, I think studies of how developmental trauma can modify personality might be helpful in considering these themes. Are you aware of Dr Laurence Heller's book "Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image and the Capacity for Relationships"? If not, I think you would find very useful in your work, especially how to spot the characteristic problem people. I have laid out the behaviours of Heller's 5 Survival Styles in my recent post https://garysharpe.substack.com/p/personality-types-traits-tests-and
Yep, I read that one several years ago. I'm not sure I'm totally sold with his explanation of how each of the styles emerge, but definitely see value in understanding the styles themselves.
Milquetoast, long-winded, in denial of the fact that most people seek quarrelling and strife all the time because they cannot sublimate their innate aggressiveness into higher pursuits.
Also, I don't understand the video link with British comedians impersonating Nazis repented because of the skulls signs on their caps. What's with the virtue signalling, you're happy that at least we don't speak German now?
Brilliantly explained! Political Ponerology is a dense text, and you have made it accessible to non-academics.
Thank you, Laura! That's what I'm trying to do, bit by bit.
Very insightful and engaging writing! I guess it's true what Kant said about the only absolutely good thing being a good will, since anything else could be used as a tool for harm by someone with a malicious will. And similarly, the only absolute evil is an evil will, especially as manifested in psychopathy. It's amazing how much pain and suffering that relatively small demographic of psychopaths creates for the rest of humanity. The ideologies and political movements the psychopaths use are incidental, though it does seem that some ideologies and movements are more easily manipulated by psychopathic actors than others.
"The ideologies and political movements the psychopaths use are incidental, though it does seem that some ideologies and movements are more easily manipulated by psychopathic actors than others."
Exactly.
Indeed. @Daniel D - Since it's been a while since my forays into Kant, could you maybe point to a book/passage in his work that brings out this aspect well? (Or relatively well, given that it's Kant lol)
Whew! I had long suppressed the memory of reading him, and now I'm working through the trauma of being in an undergrad moral philosophy course all over again.... Kant was writing in response to Hume, and I only wish he had managed to write as clearly as Hume did!
Anyway, as I recall it was in "A Critique of Practical Reason." Confession: I did not read that book cover to cover but only excerpts, and it's been a while, so I can't recall specifically where in that book he shares that idea.
Thanks a lot, I'll have a look. (Reading Kant cover to cover? That doesn't happen, not in this universe!)
Well written and thought provoking essay. I have many thoughts, but this struck me at a gut level:
"I’d much rather form my own 'team' with the people I think best from a wide variety of existing 'teams.' I’d probably be a terrible soldier. Then again, I think I’d have a pretty stellar team. (Plus I can engage in a bit of inside baseball with my fellow weirdos.)"
Good storytelling (particularly in the recent past) includes a strong tradition of the motley crew of misfits and ragtag rebels, each of whom brings a unique talent to the table when it comes to their shared mission. This is the seed of truth that lurks in ludicrous postmodern bromides like "diversity is strength" (which, like many such carefully constructed lies has come to mean the opposite of it's seeming intent). But the underlying truth is there, hiding in plain sight; uniting in purpose while accepting a variety of different tactical approaches is the key to victory. Not only will it keep the enemy off guard, but the diversity of approaches may lead us all to deeper truths about the structure of reality on our path to that victory.
Well put, Mark! When it comes to a super-normal shared mission, I think the talent pool shrinks a lot. So it's almost a necessity to search outside your regular milieu in order to find the people necessary to fill all required roles.
Yeah. Tolkien figured this out after surviving war and mass atrocity. Gygax and other postmoderns commoditized and dilluted the notion afterward, but you still see the truth rearing its "ugly head" from time to time (I imagine there were even certain D&D groups that recaptured its spirit in their games). Even the intense celebration of "Stranger Things" (of which I have mixed feelings) seemed to prove this storied truth still spoke to the hearts of many people, even if they lost the language to describe it.
This struck me deeply too: "I’d much rather form my own 'team' with the people I think best from a wide variety of existing 'teams.' I’d probably be a terrible soldier. Then again, I think I’d have a pretty stellar team. (Plus I can engage in a bit of inside baseball with my fellow weirdos.)"
It feels like this has become my life strategy since ~2020, and a great upgrade to the quality of my relationships.
Agreed. And, I mea, this is one of those truths that has been staring at us our entire lives! I wonder what else we've been missing under our noses.
Excellent essay. I am very glad you brought forward the points about the range of diversity within groups, and that notion that psychopaths are destructive parts of their own groups, destructive tendencies pointed both inside and outside the group. I am working on an essay in a similar vein, and it will be super handy to cite this :)
The issue of internal diversity is where there whole DEI movement really drives me nuts in asserting that there shouldn't be different outcomes across subgroups. Even random chance would ensure some, but the fact that humans differ quite a bit in personality, talent and preferences, and those differences are tied to genetics and culture is huge. Yet, somehow, it is anathema that some groups would be more heavily represented doing some things than others.
Looking forward to your piece, Doc!
Here’s who passes the psychopath test: https://robertyoho.substack.com/p/149-testing-for-psychopathsthe-stuff
Brilliant article, which I have read before, but enjoyed reading again (and now subscribed). One of the things I have noticed is in my studies of trauma and chronic illness, is that our institutions have become self-selecting and amplifying of broken people ( https://garysharpe.substack.com/p/trauma-at-the-institutional-level )
Good article and bibliography. I guess I am the only one here who was introduced to the concept of the "suppressive person" before I found out about the "psychopath" of psychology and psychiatry. We have our own test for this personality type, and while I could link to our video on the subject, I'm hoping someone else will discover it and find it interesting enough to share.
Link please
https://www.scientology.tv/series/l-ron-hubbard-library-presents/the-anti-social-personality-the-social-personality.html
Hubbard was an unrecognized genius. He also saw how bad psychiatry was. This vid has many elements of what we know now.
I appreciate your willingness to look in this direction!
Somehow I don't think the woke social justice tribe insinuating itself in every institution would be much amenable to the speech by your theoretical Rattler leader. This or the Davos/transhumanist crowd . Or the jab true believers. This tribalism effect seems to be manifesting in the West as a kind of death cult. There is little rationalizing with that.
But as a former college baseball player who only occasionally watches professional sports for the talent and inspiration of it on both sides, I appreciate this essay and acknowledge much of the truth of it.
Yep, I agree. Our Rattler would need to take a different approach in that scenario. We're way past the point and scale of a bad Eagle usurping power. I'm afraid we might be in the "hunker down and pump out the samizdat" phase of this operation.
Hunker down, find your community, get skilled, knowledgeable and healthy and start building power bases to defend against globalized, centralized tyranny?
Sounds about right to me.
This article brought tears to my eyes, Harrison! Maybe because I've at completed The_Managerial_Class_On_Trial, but I judge this piece to be both accessible to a wider audience and extraordinarily helpful in bringing our attention on the problem of the enemy within. Thank you for this!
You're welcome, Jerome! Glad you appreciated it.
I hope your arguments make a strong impression on your readers.
Your point that dangerous people can show up inside any organized group is very important. As is the observation that people left to their own devices tend to organize and to take advantage of the strengths of each of their members. And then the group tends to defend ALL its members against personal attacks. Though these are mere observations, they are important.
I was quite young when I was first introduced to the idea that something like an "anti-social" personality actually exists. I was otherwise rather poorly educated in the subject of human psychology. But this "fact of life" made incredible sense to me, as it answered numerous questions I had about life on Earth as I was observing it. The point being made by my teacher was that those personalities that are the most active in undermining the lives of other people have a real talent in maintaining the secrecy of their activities. We are all familiar with some of the ways that a bad actor or group can cover its tracks.
I can only contribute some additional concepts for those who want a deeper understanding of the situation. I persist in this activity because it is my judgement that without a deeper understanding of the situation, we will never get out of it. And as I have noted, the key finding is that we are all immortal spiritual beings. This finding opens the door to a wealth of other information and paths of inquiry.
We have plugged many holes in our understanding with the evolutionary model. Though this may have some small usefulness, in the light of the above-mentioned finding, there is so much more data that can be brought to bear on these issues. I am particularly interested in the fact that these data seem to have led to innovations in mental therapy, education, and human organizations. I hope that others will also see this "disruptive" finding as worth pursuing further.
Love your choice of the group photo! Looking at it again today as I cited the article in a comment, I noticed the boy hanging upside down from the sign, and saw myself in him, ha ha! Having team members with different perspectives and strengths can make the team more capable, while having the team to deal with the more commonplace issues makes it possible for the outlier individual to not have to focus so much on the mundane.
Brilliant and insightful. This part particularly struck me as True: "In other words, ordinary people of one race have more in common—psychologically—with ordinary people of other races than they do with psychopaths in their own race. Or, to flip that around, psychopaths of different races have more in common with each other than they do with ordinary members of their own race.
Maybe the call is coming from inside the house?".
When it comes to attending to our own house, I think studies of how developmental trauma can modify personality might be helpful in considering these themes. Are you aware of Dr Laurence Heller's book "Healing Developmental Trauma: How Early Trauma Affects Self-Regulation, Self-Image and the Capacity for Relationships"? If not, I think you would find very useful in your work, especially how to spot the characteristic problem people. I have laid out the behaviours of Heller's 5 Survival Styles in my recent post https://garysharpe.substack.com/p/personality-types-traits-tests-and
Yep, I read that one several years ago. I'm not sure I'm totally sold with his explanation of how each of the styles emerge, but definitely see value in understanding the styles themselves.
Milquetoast, long-winded, in denial of the fact that most people seek quarrelling and strife all the time because they cannot sublimate their innate aggressiveness into higher pursuits.
Also, I don't understand the video link with British comedians impersonating Nazis repented because of the skulls signs on their caps. What's with the virtue signalling, you're happy that at least we don't speak German now?
Thanks, Jay!