I suspect most of us with an inclination to look wider than our own circle of family and friends have asked ourselves at some time or other why the world is in such a mess and remains so.
Most of us thinkers never get very far. We tend to be considerate of others and generally unwilling to do the somewhat unethical things that might get us elbowing rivals out of the way so that we can prosper. Something inside stops us. We just don’t feel we could live with ourselves if we did such things. We’d feel dirty and that we would feel ashamed, aware that we had done something we were brought up to reject as a way to live honestly in this world.
Most of us probably have no clear concept of how other people may not be imbued with the same mentality we share with other honest friends we have who we trust as loyal people, people we instinctively know as good and who we respect. It is difficult to get our heads around the mentality of people who think in a different way entirely.
I am talking of the kind of people who grow up to become confidence tricksters of whom there is a wide spectrum of behavior. Those to whom other people are seen only as competition to get ahead of, to manipulate, to kneecap by whatever tactics are necessary to triumph over, who are quite capable of any kind of trickery that works, even to the level of outright criminality.
As I say, there is a wide spectrum of such a minority, and they are a minority, this much is known.
The spectrum begins with the bully, young or old who throws his or her weight around. Perhaps you encountered one in your early life or later, perhaps at work. They generate a weird vibe, something quite unfamiliar and off-putting. You are thrown at a disadvantage as you can’t understand that mentality, it seems wholly inappropriate and pushes your buttons. You get confused into thinking it might be your fault, that you are weak and unable and that you deserve this treatment and at the very least it scares you and this makes you feel ashamed. The bully doesn’t seem to recognize the effect of their acts on you, there appears an absolute zero of understanding on that. Doesn’t he or she see that you are hurting? That you are trying to do the right thing or do the thing they want, right? You can’t seem to get the point of what’s happening... it simply does not compute. Your brain is not wired up the same way as the predator you’ve encountered.
Beyond the bully but including all the bully’s attribute we move on to the next level when he or she has used their conscience-free talents to ingratiate themselves with the upper management where you work. They have impressed their superiors with what appear to be powerful personalities, full of self-confidence and dynamism. They impress also as the kind of people who have the man-management skills to discipline and motivate the workforce and who will stand for no nonsense, who won’t be too easygoing and thereby encourage laziness. These people tend to get team leader roles and later they will be called on to emotionlessly deal with candidates for firing and redundancy. These tasks will be no problem at all for them as they have few feelings for others that might get in the way.
Not all businesses will operate in this way of course. Some teams within businesses will be formed of good-hearted people working for an eminently sane boss who wants good relationships and provides a safe environment for team-building, cooperative events and bonding between all members.
But the traditional companies where old management techniques involving shaming and blaming, where the bottom line is everything and everyone is pressured to the maximum to perform are the place those I am talking of gravitate too and excel within rising inexorably to the upper echelons.
Others like you and I, unless we are lucky enough to have found a modern environment of no blame and a caring management that is aware of having the responsibility to create a good and fair working space, end up happy to survive somehow ans take home a decent wage. In ambition-demanding, dynamism-expecting environments we get totally left behind unless we have some super extraordinary skill that singles us out.
Now imagine this going further up the line to upper management. Imagine the dirty deals that people get expected to engage in and hard-nosed activities that they are expected to perform. There is no leeway at that level, no excuses are accepted and those around you have the same hard-nosed mentality, the dog-eat-dog ambitions and the almost (or total) absence of anything approaching a conscience.
Take it one step further in the field of politics. Move that on up to the level of politics in high office. Then think of governmental positions and the presidency or prime ministership.
Each step emphasizes ever greater levels of pressure, demands to exceed, to maintain your position and to shield yourself from attack while planning your own attacks on others.
Are you getting the idea of why we end up with a certain kind of person dominating those top positions?
Toward the far end of the spectrum I’m talking about from the bully we started out from and the sharp-elbowed few who aggressively get themselves up into the business, media or political heights are the sociopaths. Where some with few scruples may get far, those with no scruples at all can ascend to far greater heights in certain fields, politics being just one of them.
Serial killers are at the furthest end of the spectrum I’m talking of, but we need not discuss them at any length. They have zero conscience, zero compassion or empathy, are completely amoral and feel nothing even doing what anyone else, even those further back in the spectrum would find distasteful if not completely abhorrent. Some of them no doubt would have a sneaking envy for them... but not outright approval.
Serial killers don’t make good executives however and thankfully so. They are too obsessed, their mentality flits to haphazardly and though they believe they know it all have a very hard time doing anything right at all. They simply have no experience at doing anything constructive and with the view that they know everything already feel they have no need to learn anything.
It’s the ones who are not quite at that far end of the spectrum but share many of the attributes such as an absence of conscience, no empathy and a completely amoral attitude to honesty that create most mayhem in our world. They have been socialized somehow. This is why they are not killers or otherwise insane. They have learned great cunning in the manipulation of others. These are the confidence tricksters able to easily dupe people into believing in them and handing over their money or possessions. These traits are also vital to being a successful politician. The cynicism has to be almost total to be a convincing teller of believable half-truths, carefully constructed admirable aspirations with as much reality as a fairy tale, a dynamic personality that gives the impression of knowing all necessary facts and wielding any necessary weapon against all contenders to his or her political crown.
These are the socialized psychopaths. And these compose to one degree or another all those who rise to the top of whatever elite tree you could mention from media, to business to politics... especially so in our modern world where an excellent image and cutthroat abilities are vital.
These people are the reason why the world never emerges from the mess we see around us while we try to engage with the best will in the world with those around us.
If you need an example of such a person, one left the highest office in the United States of America just yesterday. His name is infamous worldwide. If you have an interest in this subject that so many of us have pondered, why things in the realms above us and almost totally beyond our understanding are so completely fucked up, study the characteristics of Donald J. Trump and if you are especially keen, compare them to the most commonly used Hare list of psychopathic traits.
This is your answer to the question we began with regarding why this world is so messed up yet most people you know are reasonably decent human beings acting reasonably well.
It is because, almost always... it tends only to be psychopaths who reach the top and stat there.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment