Friday, Oct. 7, 2011
Stopping the Insanity
Like most people living through this jarring age of economic turbulence and political dysfunction, you can probably recall a moment in the last few months when you thought to yourself that our lawmakers and corporate leaders are all crazy. And not just run-of-the-mill crazy, a la George Costanza's parents, but the kind of crazy that makes films like "Silence of the Lambs" and "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" so frightening.
The good news for you is that you aren't insane for thinking this. The bad news for all of us, though, is that according to two new scientific analyses, you are more correct in your assessment than you may know.
The first revelation came from Dr. Nassir Ghaemi of Tufts University. In his recent book, "A First-Rate Madness," he went beyond merely restating the old adage that anyone crazy enough to run for public office probably shouldn't occupy that office. Instead, the book sheds light on what Ghaemi calls an "inverse law of sanity," whereby tumultuous times like these actually reward and promote political figures who are "mentally abnormal (or) even ill."
Now comes a new study from Switzerland's University of St. Gallen showing that the most successful of the global financial elite probably pose more of a menace to society than known psychopaths.
As the website Newser reported, the researchers "pitted a group of stockbrokers against a group of actual psychopaths in various computer simulations and intelligence tests and found that the money men were significantly more reckless, competitive, and manipulative." Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive "to damage their opponents."
The findings build on similar research in the recent past. In 1996, investigators at Glasgow Caledonian University discovered connections between psychopathy and successful financial speculation, concluding that "with the right parenting, (psychopaths) can become successful stockbrokers instead of serial killers." Likewise, in 2004, researchers at the University of British Columbia reacted to similar findings and created a test to help firms detect "corporate psychopaths" within their ranks. That same year, the award winning-documentary "The Corporation" used World Health Organization metrics to show that if companies really are "people," as our Supreme Court insists, then many of them are mentally ill.
Obviously, these results reflect the not-so-surprising fact that the extreme nature of the modern political process and of today's casino economy inherently self-select for certain kinds of traits. And no doubt, wholly changing that dynamic may be impossible or undesirable—or both.
However, the findings are a reminder of why now—more than ever—we must refuse to succumb to political apathy and laissez-faire demagoguery. Indeed, it's time to redouble our commitment to strengthening checks on political and corporate power because that power is often being wielded by the most unstable among us.
So what does that mean in practice? It means that when we see a wild-eyed White House ignore the constitution and claim the despotic right to assassinate American citizens without criminal charge, we demand that Congress stop the madness—rather than quietly acquiesce. It means that when we see a spontaneous grassroots movement physically occupy Lower Manhattan and challenge banks' deranged rapaciousness, we applaud the effort as long overdue—rather than scoff at it as unrealistic. It means, in short, that we refuse to stay silent in the face of insanity.
And frankly, if we have scientific proof that the inmates are running the Wall Street and Washington asylums, this is the least we should do—and we really should do a whole lot more.
David Sirota is best-selling author of the new book "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. Email him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at DavidSirota.com.
The good news for you is that you aren't insane for thinking this. The bad news for all of us, though, is that according to two new scientific analyses, you are more correct in your assessment than you may know.
The first revelation came from Dr. Nassir Ghaemi of Tufts University. In his recent book, "A First-Rate Madness," he went beyond merely restating the old adage that anyone crazy enough to run for public office probably shouldn't occupy that office. Instead, the book sheds light on what Ghaemi calls an "inverse law of sanity," whereby tumultuous times like these actually reward and promote political figures who are "mentally abnormal (or) even ill."
Now comes a new study from Switzerland's University of St. Gallen showing that the most successful of the global financial elite probably pose more of a menace to society than known psychopaths.
As the website Newser reported, the researchers "pitted a group of stockbrokers against a group of actual psychopaths in various computer simulations and intelligence tests and found that the money men were significantly more reckless, competitive, and manipulative." Even more striking, the researchers note that achieving overall success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive "to damage their opponents."
The findings build on similar research in the recent past. In 1996, investigators at Glasgow Caledonian University discovered connections between psychopathy and successful financial speculation, concluding that "with the right parenting, (psychopaths) can become successful stockbrokers instead of serial killers." Likewise, in 2004, researchers at the University of British Columbia reacted to similar findings and created a test to help firms detect "corporate psychopaths" within their ranks. That same year, the award winning-documentary "The Corporation" used World Health Organization metrics to show that if companies really are "people," as our Supreme Court insists, then many of them are mentally ill.
Obviously, these results reflect the not-so-surprising fact that the extreme nature of the modern political process and of today's casino economy inherently self-select for certain kinds of traits. And no doubt, wholly changing that dynamic may be impossible or undesirable—or both.
However, the findings are a reminder of why now—more than ever—we must refuse to succumb to political apathy and laissez-faire demagoguery. Indeed, it's time to redouble our commitment to strengthening checks on political and corporate power because that power is often being wielded by the most unstable among us.
So what does that mean in practice? It means that when we see a wild-eyed White House ignore the constitution and claim the despotic right to assassinate American citizens without criminal charge, we demand that Congress stop the madness—rather than quietly acquiesce. It means that when we see a spontaneous grassroots movement physically occupy Lower Manhattan and challenge banks' deranged rapaciousness, we applaud the effort as long overdue—rather than scoff at it as unrealistic. It means, in short, that we refuse to stay silent in the face of insanity.
And frankly, if we have scientific proof that the inmates are running the Wall Street and Washington asylums, this is the least we should do—and we really should do a whole lot more.
David Sirota is best-selling author of the new book "Back to Our Future: How the 1980s Explain the World We Live In Now." He hosts the morning show on AM760 in Colorado. Email him at ds@davidsirota.com, follow him on Twitter @davidsirota or visit his website at DavidSirota.com.
© 2011 CREATORS.COM
ROTFLMAO!! Sure, all of those marchers get handed a paycheck at the end of the day... You'd be hysterical if you weren't so pathetic...
"achieving success was less important to the stock speculators than the sadistic drive 'to damage their opponents'."? -- Ever watch a Packers - Bears game? THAT'S US!
"with the right parenting, (psychopaths) can become successful stockbrokers instead of serial killers."? -- And this is why the wealthy set up private boarding (military) schools for their uncontrollable kids... keeps them from destroying the family's public reputation by leaving their bad seed out in public, only to later inject that heir to the family business into a place high enough to have secretaries and personal assistant's keeping their lives in order.
And a fairly recent study (from talk radio) claiming 1 out of 5 bosses are psychopaths? That's what the corporate higher ups reward, the ability to "show me the money"... no matter what!
"today's casino economy", an idea that I have been repeating in water cooler talk, I am glad to see it said by a man of some public credentials.
"commitment to strengthening checks on political and corporate power" -- I am glad to see someone else sees it my way, too. I had been leaving out the point about "power is often being wielded by the most unstable among us."
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This is the point that the Tea Party people are missing. As much as "small business" wants to see the removal of those blocks to success caused by taxes and regulations, they got to realize that whatever "wins" are gained by small business, big business will gain so much more from it. -- I will say it again... when you let the wealthy and big business keep their money, they are free to take it to a place that has more room to grow, and it is not in the US! Let business keep their money and they will outsource faster! The ones who outsource jobs first will make the money from those among us who have NOT been outsourced... yet. When the last is outsourced, nobody makes any money anymore, that's why they want to outsource faster than the competition.
This Occupy Wall Street movement... It is wrong to equate "liberal democrats" with anarchists and communists. In fact, the Tea Party (and corporate business) are the ones to be equated with anarchy, for they are the ones who want the powers of government to be eliminated, they are the ones who want the removal of "the rule of law" when that law was created by "We the people" instead of a monarch CEO and his board of directors "King's court". I guess all you right wingers prefer the "rule of concentrated power", because that's what right wing IS all about!
And all you people who feel that if you support your corporate minded handlers in bringing about the changes they want, that they will reward you big, get a clue! Once the full set of changes are in place, they want need you anymore, and you know what business does with people they don't need anymore. They dump you out, with no severance, no golden parachute, no pension!
If you want to have catch-phrases so that terms like "tax and spend" become synonymous with "democrat", then let's start referring to "the worker" as a "work and spend consumer". It is easy to say cut costs by reducing money to the worker, we must stop ignoring the fact that this worker is actually a consumer. We want more "demand" to spur the economy? Then we need more consumers who have money to spend!