Dictators and Psychopaths

I wanted to cover this topic as this weeks podcast and blog because I am worried about the state of things. Over the days as we record this and it goes out on the internet a variety of things will have taken place in the UK parliament. It maybe that the government is defeated and that we are heading for a general election. It could be that Boris Johnson forces through his no deal Brexit and that we crash out of the EU. Or it could be the start of severe civil unrest that could ultimately lead to an active or a covert civil war. I am not being dramatic in my observations. 

We are in a situation where the government is prepared to, and plans to, suspend parliament so that they can force through their intentions without opposition or debate. Now, call me old fashioned but, when I was a kid this was called a dictatorship and is a gross dereliction of the democratic process. Any other dictatorial government, anywhere in the world, that had dared to do such a thing would have been descried from the roof tops and exposed as pariahs and cheats. Hey, guess what?, we are now one of those countries currently governed by the non elected Dictator Johnson.

This is a quote from my resource for this  weeks podcast.

In many established democracies, the descent towards dictatorship is becoming a real threat. In this light, we need to consider two urgent questions: Can dictators in the making be “cured”? And can we prevent dictators from assuming power?  

I’m afraid that the response to the first question is: “not likely”. Historical experience has proven otherwise. From a clinical perspective, most psychotherapists believe that dictators (with their psychopathic traits) tend to be untreatable. Thus, many opposing powers are needed to address the second question on how to prevent their ascension.

Prevention is better than cure, so we need to recognise potential dictators before they stealthily compromise and destroy our lives. Once they are in power, it is often too late.

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We have often mentioned the issue of psycho-pathology and socio-pathology in previous episodes. The pathology bit means someone who acts without insight or empathy. These people would also often be narcissistic and sometimes borderline personalities. In simple short hand psychopaths are born like it and have a certain type of brain structure and genome that make it virtually impossible for them to change. A sociopath is someone who has learned to act like that, often due to their underlying narcissism, abuse and unresolved inner conflicts. Sociopaths can change, though it takes a lot of emotional and practical resources for this to happen.

In our current situation globally we are in the grip of the successful psychopaths such as Johnson, Trump, Putin, Kim Jong and so on. This is not dissimilar to the set up before the Second World War where there was Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Chiang Kai-shek, Hirohito and so on. These dictators with their narcissistic intolerance, ignorance and xenophobia created the inevitability of the Second World War in which it is estimated that 85 million people died.   

Is the same thing about to happen all over again?

I come back to my life time mantra…

If we all look after each other we will all be okay.

We seem to be someway away from that right now. 

The Earth and Mother Nature is being assailed from many directions at this time. There is climate change, global warming, rising see levels, increase carbon dioxide, burning forests, increased pollution, plastics interfering with the ecosystems, super drug resistant bugs, over population of human beings. There is a tipping point where it, where we, become unsustainable. I suspect that that point is a lot closer than we think.

So, stay aware over the next few weeks. The world of the Brits, and as a consequence the rest of the world, could change dramatically. Let us hope that it is for the better!

Take care 

Sean x