27 September 2015

The Psychopath Next Door - Snakes In Suits - The Will To Power


What is good? All that enhances the feeling of power, the Will to Power, and the power itself in man. What is bad? All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? The feeling that power is increasing— that resistance has been overcome. Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but competence.

The first principle of our humanism is that the weak and the failures shall perish. And they ought to be helped to perish. What is more harmful than any vice? Active pity for all failure and weakness — Christianity.

Friedrich Nietzsche

“They often make use of the fact that for many people the content of the message is less important than the way it is delivered.

A confident, aggressive delivery style - often larded with jargon, clichés, and flowery phrases - makes up for the lack of substance and sincerity in their interactions with others ... they are masters of impression management; their insight into the psyche of others combined with a superficial - but convincing - verbal fluency allows them to change their personas skillfully as it suits the situation and their game plan.

They are known for their ability to don many masks, change 'who they are' depending upon the person with whom they are interacting, and make themselves appear likable to their intended victim...

Psychopathic workers very often were identified as the source of departmental conflicts, in many cases, purposely setting people up in conflict with each other. “She tells some people one story, and then a totally different story to others...The most debilitating characteristic of even the most well-behaved psychopath is the inability to form a workable team.

Paul Babiak and Robert Hare, Snakes in Suits

Politicians do not get the attention that so many of them deserve in this documentary.

I think organizations, and even nations, can give themselves over to a kind of collective madness, and harden their hearts over time through fear and fashion.

One of the most concerning trends is the sanctification of violent, deceptive, selfish, and self-deluding behaviour in our society.   We fear nothing but power, respect nothing but power, despise and abuse the weak in our bitterness, and believe that anything goes in the service of greed and power.

And the worst is that with all this endless war culture of selfish thieving, we fancy ourselves to be a paragon of history, the culmination of progress, and exceptional for our virtue.   There is a downfall, and a tragedy, in the making.