At my formerly beloved “National Review” Jim Geraghty wrote yesterday that “ The Demise of Journalism is Nothing to Cheer.” The comments were scathing, including my own. I remarked that people ARE still willing to pay for quality journalism, see Substack. This platform is a blessing that just might save the world. May its founders remain people of integrity! Keep up the good work Elizabeth!
Dear Good - another of my fave Stackers is one of your countrymen, Paul Kingsnorth “Abby of Misrule.” His “Tale of the Machine” series provides thoughtful and thorough insight on how we got here. Highly recommend!
I also like how you remind us, or make us aware, of the “small” victories that are occurring. Each one by themselves not much, but hopefully the beginning of a tidal wave
Loved your perspective but the end is not near. As you traced the history, this has been an on going issue for a very long time, thousands of years in my read. The issue is the tribal personality with perception limited to only seeking power/wealth vs the rest of us seeking family and a community that works together, not seeking to take other's wealth. To end the constant destructive cycle between these two we need to recognize the destructiveness of the sociopathic personality only recently recognized by a few in society as the destabilizing force for the rest. And, we each need to recognize this issue which is throwback to our tribal past yet still the most destructive minority of society. We each need to be able to recognize the traits associated with this monstrous aberration of cooperative survival. Once we do that successfully, we will no longer give them authority of any kind over us. To give them an inch is their invitation to take a mile.
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
That famous quote is a half-truth IMO. The percentage of dark and light in the human heart varies widely. Some people have far far more darkness in their hearts than most. They are the ones who drive the madness. They are the ones who must be removed from power if we are going to win. See the book Political Ponerology by Lobaczewski.
Remove them from power and there will be plenty of others ready to step up to take their place. There are petty tyrannical egos in every street who, given the chance to get rich and gain all the trappings of ‘success’ in society, will rush at the chance.
Our societal values are too badly skewed. We need a Great Reset. Just not the one the psychopathic globalists have in mind.
That's true that there will always be totalitarian types ready to make their moves but that is an eternal problem of human nature. Maybe it would be more accurate to think of it as removing this particular overgrowth of toxic weeds and being more vigilant in the future.
The problem with "Great Resets" of any kind, even ones that sound good, is that these same kinds of people will try to hijack it, and they are very good at disguising themselves. I see our problem as the corruption of a basically good system and that we need to back up and make many smaller piecemeal corrections to restore things to their previous just and efficient order. I'm 66 years old and I remember how much better things used to run before the grifters and ideologues took over. I see what we have been living through as the culmination of a slow-moving cultural revolution that started in the 1960's when the academy succumbed to the radical left.
Is it ‘human nature’? Or is this behaviour merely part of the inevitable trajectory of behaviour conditioned by a particular way of viewing ourselves and our relationship to the rest of life?
There are certain ‘core routines’ or beliefs taken as axiomatic in our cultural operating system which don’t stand up to scrutiny. And which make a society which abuses the natural world and its own members inevitable.
While I recognise the trend you’ve observed through a similar lifespan to mine, that’s just relative to our lived experience. Only a decade or two previously all hell was breaking loose. And for the same reasons. If we’re to break this repeating cycle, then I think we need a much deeper inquiry into what drives our behaviour.
Salvation came, some get it and some refuse, the mystery of refusing is still alive. But as Messiah said: "let the wheat grow with the tares", living on a small farm, I get it, and every good farmer can see the difference clearly. Thank God, the greatest farmer in the Heaven's; he knows, and justice and truth will prevail. Until then, it's never too late to replace the evil with Salvation.....
We all have violence in us, if only in our thoughts. How many of us have never had a daydream where we take someone apart, that needs it? If a society of a million people are 2% violent, then 2% of that society will be violent. We live in a violent world. It will burst out here and there. If you have expunged all your violence, then good on you. But, I haven't. So, I contribute.
Violence is a mode of behaviour. Evil is an impulse, a driving imperative. Just because evil impulses can exhibit violence doesn’t make violence evil. Evil can exhibit any and all of the behaviours we value as well. Does that make those behaviours evil any more than it does violence? Of course not!
As a society we are too fixated on the symptoms exhibited by various motivating forces (which can be common to many causes and contexts) rather than the root causes - what it is that’s giving rise to those symptoms. We have somehow arrived at the conclusion that if we get rid of the symptoms it will deal with the causes. That’s utterly illogical. As well as utterly stupid.
I am not disagreeing with you. But, violence should always be a last resort. It is not something that should be done lightly. I think Churchill said 'It is better to Jaw Jaw, than War War'. IE better to talk it through than fight. I don't think in many societies violence is a tool to be used only at certain times. It isn't in ours. We too casually praise violence, and worse, we egg it on too frequently. I am not a pacifist. But, I have done a lot of fighting, and it should be a last resort and used only when there will be less damage done by fighting than by not fighting. IMO.
For that matter, even if it is understood by everyone you can't win a fight. You can only lose less badly than the other. If I get into a fistfight and I punch the other guy 100 times, he sneaks 5 through to me, I win! Hugely. However, if I rephrase this and say "Wow. Today I got punched five times, my clothes got blood all over them, I broke a knuckle, and my hand is now very swollen" most people would rightly say "Holy Cow, that is a bad day." A fight, even a righteous fight has a price tag that it would be better to not have to pay. However, if by not fighting you will be hurt more, or your society will be hurt more, then fight.
We have paid for Ukraine to fight Russia. As a result Ukraine destroyed itself. The price they would have had to pay to NOT fight was they wouldn't get to join NATO. IE no American military bases on Russia's doorstep. They would have had to give Russia a pathway to the Black Sea. And, they might have had to give up the two Russian provinces IF the people voted fairly to join Russia. That last one is a big price. The first two are nothing. The price they paid to fight though? Massive. They will lose their entire country and they have lost 100s of 1000s of lives. An entire generation has been wiped out, either through emigration, death, or dismemberment. This was a stupid and evil fight. If they had evaluated accurately the cost, they wouldn't have fought.
Thank you for the comment. It will not be easy. Sociopaths carry genetic imperfections and any family can have them. To have a decent society one must treat each with a certain level of fairness. We need to train ourselves to recognize the traits of these people and once recognized not give them authority over us. Hare created his checklist for this purpose.
Preventing sociopaths from gaining top-down authority requires each of us to take responsibility in assessing others. Each of us must be an independent critical thinker here. We should begin in revamping our education system to teach some of this at the earliest level appropriate.
It is tough, as in hard-as-nails, to admit that someone I love is a sociopath. It has happened to me once and I'm still finding ways to make it all my fault instead of admitting the sociopathic facts of the matter. It is soul-rending and heart-breaking but facts are facts. I don't like to admit it but there it is...
I disagree. Solzhenitsyn's comment is one of great wisdom. The height of CoViD 'vaccine' mania showed us very clearly the deep truth in what he wrote, and what people will do to each other under perceived existential threat, even to their own flesh and blood. As if it were needed ... Milgram's experiments at Stanford demonstrated it just as clearly. And history is replete with countless other examples.
There is no 'them' and 'us'. 'They' are merely the ultimate iteration of the adaptive response to "life is a fierce struggle for survival in a hostile world", a core routine in our societal programming, not just in relation to each other but also the non-human world which we depend on for our existence. We positively select for sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies in our leaders, particularly in the corporate domain. We take it for granted that the Earth is there for us to plunder and desecrate and other life forms for us to use and abuse as we please. Our hubris knows no bounds, despite the almost infinite complexity and interdependence of Life being so far beyond our comprehension we can barely grasp how little we understand of it.
Until each of us is forced to search our very souls and expunge the 'wrongthink' we each have in relationship to the rest of Life, we will simply rinse and repeat. Which is what we've been doing roughly every 250 years since forever ...
Evil will always be with us, as it has been since the beginning of time. But, they made their big move too early. Yes, it will come back, for sure. But, the number of people waking up is astounding. Once it hits a certain threshold, and we are fast approaching that, it will rise up and like a tsunami eat up all the bad guys in its path. It has already passed 'the tipping point', in my estimation. It is now unstoppable, but the wave has not peaked. It is an unstoppable swell moving towards shore. (....sorry....surfer here....can't get off the surfer metaphor...)
...from the eternal perspective: Evil, Time & Death began when the clock started ticking. When the last second of time passes those 3 enemies of Life will no longer exist.
You have one tooth, representing a nation, start out low and rise to a peak, followed by an inevitable drop into a valley. Then a new nation forms and begins its climb to a peak, which is higher than the last peak, followed by a fall into another valley.
But this new valley, representing a dark age, is higher than the previous dark age, just as its peak was loftier than its predecessor's.
Then out of this dark age, the next nation arises and peaks, followed by its own dark age, each point higher than their ancestors.
And so on and so forth.
The Western world is currently diving into a dark age, yes, but it'll be higher than the last dark age. Our successor sawtooth is already beginning to form, in our understanding of how much of a mess our aristocrats have made of the West.
The next valley will suck for sure, but the next peak will be pretty sweet, I'm guessing.
Yes, civilization as we've known it is collapsing and there will be pain. But I believe the ground is fertile enough to nourish and birth a Renaissance of human spirit and creativity unlike anything we've seen before in our known history. I won't live to see its fruits, but having faith that it's on its way is enough for me.
Ponerology is what Andrew M. Lobaczewski called it. Sociopathy is what it is. Psychopathic is simply the term used for criminal activity of a sociopath. Sociopathy is on a spectrum like many human behaviors, some much worse than others. Some are only conmen/women, here is where most politicians sit, stretching to the few who are serial killers. Sociopathy like any mental aberration with degrees of intensity.
I disagree with your blanket that the two pathologies are merely degrees of mental ..illness, or bad behaviour, if that’s indeed what you mean.
A sociopath is quite patient, calculating, can travel a life-time to reach a goal of intense manipulation of one or many other humans, even while feeling some semblance at times, of guilt, or remorse. Granted, those are fleeting and generally deflected emotional states in the m.o. of a sociopath.
I would argue, too, a psychopath has no such remorse, is not even as neatly organized as a sociopath - why should they be?, they have no intention of letting their object of Reason for Being survive…
No, a sociopath terrifies a social system (yes, as a politician: politely, earnestly, believably, passionately) while a psychopath terrorizes their target, be it one or a family.
Eventually the psychopath can be profiled; and so, what do we do with the politician..?
When thinking of political ponerology, it truly is the epitome of insidious evil.
I see sociopathy as on a minor to worst spectrum. All have some level of negative impact on society. Society, by this measure has ~5% defined psychopaths but certainly there are many more, perhaps another 10%, who have varying degrees of viewing others mechanically i.e., wealth, skin color, social status, political biases and etc., without looking any deeper into their human qualities. It is those who believe themselves qualified to rule over others who have caused the greatest destruction, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot and etc to name a few. But, we have a slew in our political elites and high tech leadership who believe any information they can mine and turn into wealth for themselves is open hunting season. They have little sense of individual sovereignty or individual property rights. It individuals demanded that they be paid for every time Social media types sold their personal information to others, social media platforms would not exist.
Interesting link, not familiar w Hare’s work (nor do I have the calling, to be, such). But I had to ponder a while on his test and I shall say this, and then no more bc I’m sorely under-qualified to discuss the diagnoses or criteria of the DSM or cousins thereof…
I put the test to myself, and failed it all. Score! Lol
But, then I put the test to my life as a practising alcoholic, and many friends and enemies of the same ilk.
Oh.
Many of us passed into sociopathy, there is no doubt probably not a few of us harboured fantasies of psychopathy while we suffered our delusions of grandeur and believed our loved one could not nearly see how amazing we were.
I don’t value Hare’s test as a measure of mental illness, just as I don’t agree with the theory that schizophrenia is hereditary (not a solid theory across the board, it’s true - but in general there’s a school of thought that says that’s the case).
For me, the sociopath and the schizophrenic are possibly on a similar spectrum of mental illness ..(?); not so the psychopath.
But the sociopath is not comparable to the schizophrenic: the schizophrenic has a broken brain; the sociopath has a broken conscience.
Back to political ponerology - the sociopath you reference, the political personage with sociopathic behaviours, ..it’s the system by which the sociopath rises to positions of power: they don’t get there directly by their own ingenuity, but at the same time, they will use their
genius of manipulation on the voter, who ADMIRES the sociopath, and votes to ENABLE the sociopath to become a tyrant, a ruler, a despot, a genocidal maniac..a psychopath, even.
And percentages aside (bc I’m no expert) there is definitely a Huge number of sociopaths among us all now, chaffing at the bit to rise to power …these days, to ‘rescue’ us from the tyranny of the WEF!
Yes but we have the tools (communication and otherwise) in which to face their same process using the same playbook. BIG difference--our side of the equation sees them and knows how to deal with them .
You misread. Sociopathy is counter to cooperative survival. It is an aberration to the majority. Cooperative survival is genetic. As DNA directs birds to make nests and spiders make webs unique to each species, DNA directs humans to work cooperatively for survival. Sociopaths prey on other humans and is an aberration.
As Rocky Balboa explained to Adonis Creed “one step, one punch, one round”. It’s how change comes, small cracks and then bigger cracks leading to structural failure, which in this case is a middle, lower middle and working poor group of classes that are quietly and now not so quietly turning on the moneyed elites. If you don’t think so just look at the recruiting crisis for the United States military, the poor white, black, brown Asian base isn’t coming, this a group that for generations fought our wars, iron sharpens iron, and the weak elites won’t send their darling off spring. Have fun storming the castle with the offspring of X-Ray thin women and their castrated upper middle class husbands, after a while even frozen eggs and sperm fail. That very cool dude who ignored the desiccated mindless old fool with low IQ and sticky fingers who is currently the figurehead of the “establishment” needs a Nobel Prize of some kind, if there isn’t one they need to invent one. His body language spoke for many of us,”Go away old man, take that army of sycophants with you. I am enjoying my alone time. You’re thieving my oxygen.” 100 million fire ants are on the march, they can’t stomp all,of us out.
Or the one with the deepest pockets, but since it’s usually same pockets funding both sides, then they get to decide when they have ‘won’ enough and we lose.
Thank you for stating all the wins and the truth so eloquently. It helps and brings hope seeing them all put together in one place. God bless you and keep you.
At this time it is all the more important for all of us to continue talking to people. Spread all of this information in any way you can. Use the internet or use my favourite method and talk to people directly. When you're in a store somewhere strike up a conversation with someone. You'll find a lot of people are dying to hear about it. Look at yourself as a raindrop. If enough of us fall at the same time we create a flood. This is how we will win against the evil minions of the WEF, UN, WHO and many others who seek to steal our lives. You alone can make a difference simply by speaking out. In your approach to people be calm and rational. Nothing turns people off faster than a foaming at the mouth radical. We will prevail by the spreading of information in a consistent and calm manner.
Oh my Gd I hope you’re right. I wish there was more I could do. I thought about getting involved in local politics but my husband lost his job nearly a year ago (and nobody seems to want to hire a 52 year old white guy) so we’re relying 100% on my business and I am working so hard that I can barely see straight…
These small wins should encourage more people to see the “other side” of things. I wonder if (and hope) if some of the laid off MSM employees will step forward and tell the truth about their former employers. People (other than us) need to hear how the media lied about Covid, how they created fear, how they faked everything from J6 to 9/11. Only when the tipping point is reached will real change occur. God speed
Brent Carlson: And when real change occurs and evil is banished, people will get complacent again. Evil will return. The cycle repeats. Evil thought the new technology would make a difference this time and they would conquer and rule forever.
No.
Neither will good win and conquer forever.
Humans are flawed. The cycle between good and evil winning goes on forever. The war goes on forever.
People forget and things that should have been remembered were lost.
Brent Carlson: The times of peace and prosperity are rare in human history but they do happen. My goal and hope is to make those good times last as long as possible.
These are indeed excellent wins! Thank you for sharing them in your signature firebrand manner!✊🏻 Our work has only just begun. While Texas & other states can secure land borders, the invasion continues at airports. It’s happening nonstop here in Canada. All funded by - drumroll please - the UN. We need to turn this around REAL fast before even more extremists are loose in the streets. Similarly with the CCP gangs on the west coast. Fight in any way you can!
At my formerly beloved “National Review” Jim Geraghty wrote yesterday that “ The Demise of Journalism is Nothing to Cheer.” The comments were scathing, including my own. I remarked that people ARE still willing to pay for quality journalism, see Substack. This platform is a blessing that just might save the world. May its founders remain people of integrity! Keep up the good work Elizabeth!
“The Demise of Journalism is Nothing to Cheer."
LOL
In my house it is. With glee.
Chris - Keep up the great work at Peak Prosperity! I am grateful for what you do.
Yes, he forgot the 'faux.'
there are some evil ones hiding here too. I think we need to expose them.
Hear hear!! From Ireland
Dear Good - another of my fave Stackers is one of your countrymen, Paul Kingsnorth “Abby of Misrule.” His “Tale of the Machine” series provides thoughtful and thorough insight on how we got here. Highly recommend!
Paul K exudes leadership. Exhibits a clarity of mind unmatched since CS Lewis.
Truly! He has inspired my own current deep-dive on CSL.
Thank you both, heading off to look him up. Have literally just started my own deep dive on CSL. Ah synchronicity don’cha just love it.
Well said.
I like your big picture view, Elizabeth.
I also like how you remind us, or make us aware, of the “small” victories that are occurring. Each one by themselves not much, but hopefully the beginning of a tidal wave
One grain of sand added to another and then another and another, creates a beach.
"There are no small victories, only small soldiers."
- Joe Dante, probably.
In other words, normal people are finally getting tired of the BS being pushed down our throats.
Loved your perspective but the end is not near. As you traced the history, this has been an on going issue for a very long time, thousands of years in my read. The issue is the tribal personality with perception limited to only seeking power/wealth vs the rest of us seeking family and a community that works together, not seeking to take other's wealth. To end the constant destructive cycle between these two we need to recognize the destructiveness of the sociopathic personality only recently recognized by a few in society as the destabilizing force for the rest. And, we each need to recognize this issue which is throwback to our tribal past yet still the most destructive minority of society. We each need to be able to recognize the traits associated with this monstrous aberration of cooperative survival. Once we do that successfully, we will no longer give them authority of any kind over us. To give them an inch is their invitation to take a mile.
Right! The type of person that goes into politics and wields all that power is a huge problem! Follow the money applies as well.
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
That famous quote is a half-truth IMO. The percentage of dark and light in the human heart varies widely. Some people have far far more darkness in their hearts than most. They are the ones who drive the madness. They are the ones who must be removed from power if we are going to win. See the book Political Ponerology by Lobaczewski.
Remove them from power and there will be plenty of others ready to step up to take their place. There are petty tyrannical egos in every street who, given the chance to get rich and gain all the trappings of ‘success’ in society, will rush at the chance.
Our societal values are too badly skewed. We need a Great Reset. Just not the one the psychopathic globalists have in mind.
That's true that there will always be totalitarian types ready to make their moves but that is an eternal problem of human nature. Maybe it would be more accurate to think of it as removing this particular overgrowth of toxic weeds and being more vigilant in the future.
The problem with "Great Resets" of any kind, even ones that sound good, is that these same kinds of people will try to hijack it, and they are very good at disguising themselves. I see our problem as the corruption of a basically good system and that we need to back up and make many smaller piecemeal corrections to restore things to their previous just and efficient order. I'm 66 years old and I remember how much better things used to run before the grifters and ideologues took over. I see what we have been living through as the culmination of a slow-moving cultural revolution that started in the 1960's when the academy succumbed to the radical left.
Is it ‘human nature’? Or is this behaviour merely part of the inevitable trajectory of behaviour conditioned by a particular way of viewing ourselves and our relationship to the rest of life?
There are certain ‘core routines’ or beliefs taken as axiomatic in our cultural operating system which don’t stand up to scrutiny. And which make a society which abuses the natural world and its own members inevitable.
While I recognise the trend you’ve observed through a similar lifespan to mine, that’s just relative to our lived experience. Only a decade or two previously all hell was breaking loose. And for the same reasons. If we’re to break this repeating cycle, then I think we need a much deeper inquiry into what drives our behaviour.
A Great Reset ... or a new Great Awakening.
A great statement. We need new hearts. There is only one source for that. And until that happens collectively, not much will change.
Amen, there is an everlasting supply in the Heaven's waiting for the invite!
Salvation came, some get it and some refuse, the mystery of refusing is still alive. But as Messiah said: "let the wheat grow with the tares", living on a small farm, I get it, and every good farmer can see the difference clearly. Thank God, the greatest farmer in the Heaven's; he knows, and justice and truth will prevail. Until then, it's never too late to replace the evil with Salvation.....
We all have violence in us, if only in our thoughts. How many of us have never had a daydream where we take someone apart, that needs it? If a society of a million people are 2% violent, then 2% of that society will be violent. We live in a violent world. It will burst out here and there. If you have expunged all your violence, then good on you. But, I haven't. So, I contribute.
Violence ≠ evil. Evil ≠ violence.
Violence is an entirely appropriate response in certain contexts.
Evil isn't necessarily violent.
Evil uses violence. But I generally agree. However, to get rid of violence will not be possible as we all have some violence in us.
Violence is a mode of behaviour. Evil is an impulse, a driving imperative. Just because evil impulses can exhibit violence doesn’t make violence evil. Evil can exhibit any and all of the behaviours we value as well. Does that make those behaviours evil any more than it does violence? Of course not!
As a society we are too fixated on the symptoms exhibited by various motivating forces (which can be common to many causes and contexts) rather than the root causes - what it is that’s giving rise to those symptoms. We have somehow arrived at the conclusion that if we get rid of the symptoms it will deal with the causes. That’s utterly illogical. As well as utterly stupid.
I am not disagreeing with you. But, violence should always be a last resort. It is not something that should be done lightly. I think Churchill said 'It is better to Jaw Jaw, than War War'. IE better to talk it through than fight. I don't think in many societies violence is a tool to be used only at certain times. It isn't in ours. We too casually praise violence, and worse, we egg it on too frequently. I am not a pacifist. But, I have done a lot of fighting, and it should be a last resort and used only when there will be less damage done by fighting than by not fighting. IMO.
For that matter, even if it is understood by everyone you can't win a fight. You can only lose less badly than the other. If I get into a fistfight and I punch the other guy 100 times, he sneaks 5 through to me, I win! Hugely. However, if I rephrase this and say "Wow. Today I got punched five times, my clothes got blood all over them, I broke a knuckle, and my hand is now very swollen" most people would rightly say "Holy Cow, that is a bad day." A fight, even a righteous fight has a price tag that it would be better to not have to pay. However, if by not fighting you will be hurt more, or your society will be hurt more, then fight.
We have paid for Ukraine to fight Russia. As a result Ukraine destroyed itself. The price they would have had to pay to NOT fight was they wouldn't get to join NATO. IE no American military bases on Russia's doorstep. They would have had to give Russia a pathway to the Black Sea. And, they might have had to give up the two Russian provinces IF the people voted fairly to join Russia. That last one is a big price. The first two are nothing. The price they paid to fight though? Massive. They will lose their entire country and they have lost 100s of 1000s of lives. An entire generation has been wiped out, either through emigration, death, or dismemberment. This was a stupid and evil fight. If they had evaluated accurately the cost, they wouldn't have fought.
Thank you for the comment. It will not be easy. Sociopaths carry genetic imperfections and any family can have them. To have a decent society one must treat each with a certain level of fairness. We need to train ourselves to recognize the traits of these people and once recognized not give them authority over us. Hare created his checklist for this purpose.
https://psychology-tools.com/test/pcl-22
Preventing sociopaths from gaining top-down authority requires each of us to take responsibility in assessing others. Each of us must be an independent critical thinker here. We should begin in revamping our education system to teach some of this at the earliest level appropriate.
It is tough, as in hard-as-nails, to admit that someone I love is a sociopath. It has happened to me once and I'm still finding ways to make it all my fault instead of admitting the sociopathic facts of the matter. It is soul-rending and heart-breaking but facts are facts. I don't like to admit it but there it is...
I disagree. Solzhenitsyn's comment is one of great wisdom. The height of CoViD 'vaccine' mania showed us very clearly the deep truth in what he wrote, and what people will do to each other under perceived existential threat, even to their own flesh and blood. As if it were needed ... Milgram's experiments at Stanford demonstrated it just as clearly. And history is replete with countless other examples.
There is no 'them' and 'us'. 'They' are merely the ultimate iteration of the adaptive response to "life is a fierce struggle for survival in a hostile world", a core routine in our societal programming, not just in relation to each other but also the non-human world which we depend on for our existence. We positively select for sociopathic and psychopathic tendencies in our leaders, particularly in the corporate domain. We take it for granted that the Earth is there for us to plunder and desecrate and other life forms for us to use and abuse as we please. Our hubris knows no bounds, despite the almost infinite complexity and interdependence of Life being so far beyond our comprehension we can barely grasp how little we understand of it.
Until each of us is forced to search our very souls and expunge the 'wrongthink' we each have in relationship to the rest of Life, we will simply rinse and repeat. Which is what we've been doing roughly every 250 years since forever ...
What we saw was people deeply brainwashed and systemically traumatised. We live in a systemically corrupted world and its policies are anti-human.
Evil will always be with us, as it has been since the beginning of time. But, they made their big move too early. Yes, it will come back, for sure. But, the number of people waking up is astounding. Once it hits a certain threshold, and we are fast approaching that, it will rise up and like a tsunami eat up all the bad guys in its path. It has already passed 'the tipping point', in my estimation. It is now unstoppable, but the wave has not peaked. It is an unstoppable swell moving towards shore. (....sorry....surfer here....can't get off the surfer metaphor...)
...from the eternal perspective: Evil, Time & Death began when the clock started ticking. When the last second of time passes those 3 enemies of Life will no longer exist.
Think of Western Civilization as an inclined saw.
You have one tooth, representing a nation, start out low and rise to a peak, followed by an inevitable drop into a valley. Then a new nation forms and begins its climb to a peak, which is higher than the last peak, followed by a fall into another valley.
But this new valley, representing a dark age, is higher than the previous dark age, just as its peak was loftier than its predecessor's.
Then out of this dark age, the next nation arises and peaks, followed by its own dark age, each point higher than their ancestors.
And so on and so forth.
The Western world is currently diving into a dark age, yes, but it'll be higher than the last dark age. Our successor sawtooth is already beginning to form, in our understanding of how much of a mess our aristocrats have made of the West.
The next valley will suck for sure, but the next peak will be pretty sweet, I'm guessing.
Yes, civilization as we've known it is collapsing and there will be pain. But I believe the ground is fertile enough to nourish and birth a Renaissance of human spirit and creativity unlike anything we've seen before in our known history. I won't live to see its fruits, but having faith that it's on its way is enough for me.
Sounds like you’re talking about political ponerology.
Ponerology is what Andrew M. Lobaczewski called it. Sociopathy is what it is. Psychopathic is simply the term used for criminal activity of a sociopath. Sociopathy is on a spectrum like many human behaviors, some much worse than others. Some are only conmen/women, here is where most politicians sit, stretching to the few who are serial killers. Sociopathy like any mental aberration with degrees of intensity.
https://www.sott.net/article/224670-Political-Ponerolo,y-A-Science-on-The-Nature-of-Evil-adjusted-for-Political-Purposes
Well..that Was why I referenced the term…
I disagree with your blanket that the two pathologies are merely degrees of mental ..illness, or bad behaviour, if that’s indeed what you mean.
A sociopath is quite patient, calculating, can travel a life-time to reach a goal of intense manipulation of one or many other humans, even while feeling some semblance at times, of guilt, or remorse. Granted, those are fleeting and generally deflected emotional states in the m.o. of a sociopath.
I would argue, too, a psychopath has no such remorse, is not even as neatly organized as a sociopath - why should they be?, they have no intention of letting their object of Reason for Being survive…
No, a sociopath terrifies a social system (yes, as a politician: politely, earnestly, believably, passionately) while a psychopath terrorizes their target, be it one or a family.
Eventually the psychopath can be profiled; and so, what do we do with the politician..?
When thinking of political ponerology, it truly is the epitome of insidious evil.
Good commentary, appreciate the feed back. I lean towards Robert Hare's view and his Psychopathic Test of 20 measures: https://psychology-tools.com/test/pcl-22
I see sociopathy as on a minor to worst spectrum. All have some level of negative impact on society. Society, by this measure has ~5% defined psychopaths but certainly there are many more, perhaps another 10%, who have varying degrees of viewing others mechanically i.e., wealth, skin color, social status, political biases and etc., without looking any deeper into their human qualities. It is those who believe themselves qualified to rule over others who have caused the greatest destruction, Hitler, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot and etc to name a few. But, we have a slew in our political elites and high tech leadership who believe any information they can mine and turn into wealth for themselves is open hunting season. They have little sense of individual sovereignty or individual property rights. It individuals demanded that they be paid for every time Social media types sold their personal information to others, social media platforms would not exist.
Interesting link, not familiar w Hare’s work (nor do I have the calling, to be, such). But I had to ponder a while on his test and I shall say this, and then no more bc I’m sorely under-qualified to discuss the diagnoses or criteria of the DSM or cousins thereof…
I put the test to myself, and failed it all. Score! Lol
But, then I put the test to my life as a practising alcoholic, and many friends and enemies of the same ilk.
Oh.
Many of us passed into sociopathy, there is no doubt probably not a few of us harboured fantasies of psychopathy while we suffered our delusions of grandeur and believed our loved one could not nearly see how amazing we were.
I don’t value Hare’s test as a measure of mental illness, just as I don’t agree with the theory that schizophrenia is hereditary (not a solid theory across the board, it’s true - but in general there’s a school of thought that says that’s the case).
For me, the sociopath and the schizophrenic are possibly on a similar spectrum of mental illness ..(?); not so the psychopath.
But the sociopath is not comparable to the schizophrenic: the schizophrenic has a broken brain; the sociopath has a broken conscience.
Back to political ponerology - the sociopath you reference, the political personage with sociopathic behaviours, ..it’s the system by which the sociopath rises to positions of power: they don’t get there directly by their own ingenuity, but at the same time, they will use their
genius of manipulation on the voter, who ADMIRES the sociopath, and votes to ENABLE the sociopath to become a tyrant, a ruler, a despot, a genocidal maniac..a psychopath, even.
And percentages aside (bc I’m no expert) there is definitely a Huge number of sociopaths among us all now, chaffing at the bit to rise to power …these days, to ‘rescue’ us from the tyranny of the WEF!
Oh, the irony.
You are on point.
Yes but we have the tools (communication and otherwise) in which to face their same process using the same playbook. BIG difference--our side of the equation sees them and knows how to deal with them .
I’m not sure we do know how to deal with them- the anti-human.
arrostevni: Why is cooperative survival a "monstrous aberration"?
You misread. Sociopathy is counter to cooperative survival. It is an aberration to the majority. Cooperative survival is genetic. As DNA directs birds to make nests and spiders make webs unique to each species, DNA directs humans to work cooperatively for survival. Sociopaths prey on other humans and is an aberration.
arrotsevni: I see now what you meant. Work on your grammar.
As Rocky Balboa explained to Adonis Creed “one step, one punch, one round”. It’s how change comes, small cracks and then bigger cracks leading to structural failure, which in this case is a middle, lower middle and working poor group of classes that are quietly and now not so quietly turning on the moneyed elites. If you don’t think so just look at the recruiting crisis for the United States military, the poor white, black, brown Asian base isn’t coming, this a group that for generations fought our wars, iron sharpens iron, and the weak elites won’t send their darling off spring. Have fun storming the castle with the offspring of X-Ray thin women and their castrated upper middle class husbands, after a while even frozen eggs and sperm fail. That very cool dude who ignored the desiccated mindless old fool with low IQ and sticky fingers who is currently the figurehead of the “establishment” needs a Nobel Prize of some kind, if there isn’t one they need to invent one. His body language spoke for many of us,”Go away old man, take that army of sycophants with you. I am enjoying my alone time. You’re thieving my oxygen.” 100 million fire ants are on the march, they can’t stomp all,of us out.
Charles Wemyss, Jr. They weren't "our wars".
No they were not. But, that is a much longer story for a much longer discussion. But you are righter than rain. “They weren’t OUR wars.”
Did anybody else do an impression of Rocky whist reading the quote above? No...just me then.
The side that wins the war is the one that gives up last.
Or the one with the deepest pockets, but since it’s usually same pockets funding both sides, then they get to decide when they have ‘won’ enough and we lose.
Good, True & Beautiful: How do you explain the Vietnam War?
Exactly, ask the Taliban about that strategy.
Ice Age: The only winners in war are those that survive.
#honkhonk
Am I the only one who finds Kari Lake's slurping reminiscent of Pierre Poilievre's munching an apple while schooling an interviewer?
Which was reminiscent of Elon’s interview about a month earlier.
Thank you for stating all the wins and the truth so eloquently. It helps and brings hope seeing them all put together in one place. God bless you and keep you.
At this time it is all the more important for all of us to continue talking to people. Spread all of this information in any way you can. Use the internet or use my favourite method and talk to people directly. When you're in a store somewhere strike up a conversation with someone. You'll find a lot of people are dying to hear about it. Look at yourself as a raindrop. If enough of us fall at the same time we create a flood. This is how we will win against the evil minions of the WEF, UN, WHO and many others who seek to steal our lives. You alone can make a difference simply by speaking out. In your approach to people be calm and rational. Nothing turns people off faster than a foaming at the mouth radical. We will prevail by the spreading of information in a consistent and calm manner.
Great comments
You are a battle maiden. Such a pleasure to read your work 💪❤️👏
HUGE - Sweden SCRAPPING Agenda 2030 goals
The new right-wing government is dismantling the goals outlined by the UN.
Peter Imanuelsen Jan 17, 2024
https://petersweden.substack.com/p/huge-sweden-scrapping-agenda-2030?utm_source=%2Fsearch%2Fsweden&utm_medium=reader2
Oh my Gd I hope you’re right. I wish there was more I could do. I thought about getting involved in local politics but my husband lost his job nearly a year ago (and nobody seems to want to hire a 52 year old white guy) so we’re relying 100% on my business and I am working so hard that I can barely see straight…
I pray that the end of the insanity is nigh.
Sending ❤️❤️❤️👏🏻
I hope the fruit of your labor grows sweet.
My husband is 74 and has been driving shuttle vans and loving it. Maybe your husband could explore less demanding jobs that would at least help?
These small wins should encourage more people to see the “other side” of things. I wonder if (and hope) if some of the laid off MSM employees will step forward and tell the truth about their former employers. People (other than us) need to hear how the media lied about Covid, how they created fear, how they faked everything from J6 to 9/11. Only when the tipping point is reached will real change occur. God speed
That is a wonderful Idea like joy Reid on open mike saying JB starting another fing war. It is all about the money and power
Brent Carlson: And when real change occurs and evil is banished, people will get complacent again. Evil will return. The cycle repeats. Evil thought the new technology would make a difference this time and they would conquer and rule forever.
No.
Neither will good win and conquer forever.
Humans are flawed. The cycle between good and evil winning goes on forever. The war goes on forever.
People forget and things that should have been remembered were lost.
Unfortunately you might be right.
Brent Carlson: The times of peace and prosperity are rare in human history but they do happen. My goal and hope is to make those good times last as long as possible.
Thank you for this uplifting and I think very accurate temperature reading.
Turns out hating your yourself and your family to support the state is not catching fire as planned.
The key metric are the functionaries slowly peeling off the narrative. The emergency act decision was the perfect example.
Those carrying water for the industrial-hate-complex have lost their credibility. It won't return soon.
🔥🔥🔥 GOD WINS! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 thank you for making my day🤍
MOMinator: God doesn't need to win. He created the game.
Yes but He does not the 3 American flags.
Yes
How delicious the foul taste.
The world was flipped in 2016.
Do I have to say it ?
Ok, I will.
Thank you DJT.
DJT 2024
25 IN 25
David Cashion: DJT ruined my life with his Dr Fauci and lockdowns and Warp "Vaccine".
NO! DJT is just one more rich old man from the East Coast.
These are indeed excellent wins! Thank you for sharing them in your signature firebrand manner!✊🏻 Our work has only just begun. While Texas & other states can secure land borders, the invasion continues at airports. It’s happening nonstop here in Canada. All funded by - drumroll please - the UN. We need to turn this around REAL fast before even more extremists are loose in the streets. Similarly with the CCP gangs on the west coast. Fight in any way you can!