OPINION: Sociopaths – 1, Common Good - 0
BY Rev. Tim J. Smith
After 25 years of service in prisons, psychiatric hospitals, and jails as a chaplain, it takes a lot to shock me. Every now and then I get a bracing reminder of the problems caused by bad people. And how differently they think. But more to the purpose of this publication, this shock gave me insight into our current situation as conservative dissidents from the illiberal regime.
Those who have truly struggled to change yet end up at the bottom often have great insight into what helps people change. They just haven’t actually succeeded in it themselves. This week another side was on display. I received a view into the thinking of sociopaths. At our county jail, we lead Bible study each week. In the three groups I led over the course of an afternoon I had asked, “What are some good things that can come out of a conflict?” The text was II Corinthians chapter 6, where Paul takes the bull by the horns and tells the Corinthians to come clean and reciprocate his openness with them. Paul is “creating” a conflict in order to address a problem and bring reconciliation. Good leaders do that, and their intention is to remove the obstacle of the conflict by addressing the conflict. My question about the good things that can come from conflict garnered the following – In two of the three groups, the very first answer was from an inmate saying basically, “Conflict is good because you can take advantage of the other person and come out on top.” Now these statements were not made out of pride but were almost confessional. Nonetheless, what sprang to mind for these men was selfish acquisition of power.
One could be put in mind of a street Machiavelli grasping for the upper hand in a dog-eat-dog contest. To even put it that way, it sounds like a sharp-witted and cool anti-hero offered up by the Hollywood film industry. In real life our fellow citizens of a felonious bent are often petty and lame and far from charming.
When we throw charming into the mix we cross over immediately into the realm of American politics. The same longing for conquest and selfish gain beats in the heart of many a politician, just as among the criminals filling the jail. Politicians just have nicer teeth and hair. One thinks almost immediately of that oily creature of Chicago machine politics Rahm Emanuel, who famously said, “Never let a crisis go to waste.” That is, he said, be prepared to take advantage of a bad situation or conflict to further one’s agenda. Let’s just get this out in the open also – There may even be a Hegelian dialectic going on where the problem is furthered along in order to CREATE the crisis situation. How else can the hero politician step in to save the day and also further their agenda? Kind of like the, hopefully mythical, firefighter who sets fires so he can swoop in and rescue the victims. There’s a word to describe people like this – felons, scheming politicos, fame-lusting firefighters. We rightly call them sociopaths. They violate social norms with a quiescent conscience to attain their desired goals – the public good be damned.
Private interest versus public good. This issue is the mother of that perennial plea against the power of “special interests.” One hears those two words and thinks of a Ronald Reagan – Tip O’Neil confab with liquor, good humor, and a common desire to “work things out.” It is typically conceived as a balancing of roughly equal concerns. For example, we must balance the desires of the timber industry against the public’s interest in preserving the environment. Both have their place: the timber industry provides lumber, grows the economy, pays taxes, employs citizens, etc. While the environmental lobby rightfully offers a countervailing argument against unlimited growth and rapacious “development” – with the goal of preserving our natural resources and beautiful lands for future generations. In these battles one can tell if it’s a true debate if the arguments come down to, not what to do, but how to achieve a commonly understood end state – the common good. O for the days of arguments, those halcyon days of yore.
This common good mindset is as dead as Reagan and O’Neil. I’ll be the skunk at the garden party and come right out and say it: Most of our political leaders are sociopaths. Swearing an oath before God and your family to uphold law over power or special interest – and then violating said oath knowingly with a silent conscience means you are a sociopath. You no longer view the common good as all-important. Maneuver warfare to gain the upper hand via raw exercise of power now rules the day.
At this stage in the life of our republic, democracy has led to that odious place where bribery and false promises are the tools of the trade. Why? Because social cohesion has been eroded through decades of mass immigration and creation of social tension. Identity groups organize to get their share of the pie and are thus incentivized to avoid common cause with other “identity groups.” Each faction goes to their corner with the crumbs they’ve been given and eye the other groups suspiciously. A true populist revolt against the power brokers is usually co-opted and destroyed from within. (Ever heard of the Tea Party movement? And what happened to Occupy Wall Street?)
Alexander Tytler, a Scottish economist and historian commented on the realities of ancient Athenian democracy, stating that the whole rested on a bed of cheap labor. We today would call it slavery – So we don’t have to think too much about how mass immigration in our day reduces wages and creates a permanent underclass. But in speaking of the wealthy “influencers” in Athens, Tytler said,
“Nor were the superior classes in the actual enjoyment of a rational liberty and independence. They were perpetually divided into factions, which servilely ranked themselves under the banners of the contending demagogues; and these maintained their influence over their partisans by the most shameful corruption and bribery, of which the means were supplied alone by the plunder of the public money.”
Sadly, a late-stage democracy is often characterized by this factionalism – ethnic, political, economic. There is no common interest because there is no cohesion among the peoples of the nation. Thus, power politics rules the day through forming voting blocs, bribing other power players, and keeping the masses distracted with the “sports ball” aspect of party politics. Or worse, with identity-based organizing. If Rev. King could see us now…
What is the message to our fellow conservatives in “public service”? We know many of you went into politics with high ideals or simple priorities. And continue serving and working sincerely. But, with your confidantes you confess that you have found the system in D.C. or Columbus compromised and locked in corruption. What to do? First, please stop seeing the challenges you face merely in terms of policy differences and a variety of power acquisition strategies. The differences and challenges exist NOT because of sincere policy disputes and modes of effecting change. They arise from a culture riven with factions so deep we need biblical categories to sort them out. There can be no “balancing of roughly equal concerns” when addressing human trafficking, late-term abortion, sexual grooming of schoolchildren, or wage slavery. These things are evil and all the “new-speak” in the world can’t mask the sulfurous odor emanating from the mouths of their proponents. Playing the “great game” of politics is one thing. Laying waste to families and communities is another and – looking at you conservatives leaders – we know you know this. Have no part in the evil. Holding back is remote cooperation in evil. Voting for a “bad bill” to prevent a worse bill is remote material cooperation in evil.
So division and party politics is intentional and serves the elite who create and manipulate various crises to gain power and further their interests. (And the useful idiots who further these divisions get to play junior league Bolshevik as well; how nice). How serious is our lot at this stage? Forces have been unleashed which are going to condemn our grandchildren to literal servitude, if not stopped. And sadly, conservative politician, as it is you’ve been relegated to being a pawn in this game. That is how the game is played.
However, if you would truly lead: the one way you can truly lead and serve our people is to destroy that thing which grants you power – your reputation among the elite. IF you cast away fear and speak out in moral and biblical terms you will surely face attack. Any politician who does so is shunned as an upstart, outsider, and common enemy of the “system.” It will organize itself against you and bring to bear insult and insinuation. This reaction alone should be enough to convince you the whole thing is corrupt.
But you will be loved by the People for whom you were elected.
And your sons won’t have to put a coward’s bones in your grave.
