Psychopathic Personalities…
I listened to this morning’s Desert Island Discs with the loathsome Piers Morgan. He comes across as a bright and determined person – clearly his career and successes reflect this. His access to rich and powerful people has enabled him to collect (and polish?) a number of interesting and genuinely amusing anecdotes (e.g. his interview on the beach with a barefooted Rupert Murdoch prior to being made editor of the News of the World at 28 years old) – his choice of songs was quite interesting and varied – as a PR exercise he did very well.
However – listening to him attempt to justify his role and participation in the stupidest and nastiest parts of the media and his double standards on “privacy” (his is important – other people’s isn’t) - put me in mind of this from the much missed Kurt Vonnegut back in 2003 – read it all…:
“I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d’etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka “Christians,” and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or “PPs.”
To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose!
And what syndrome better describes so many executives at Enron and WorldCom and on and on, who have enriched themselves while ruining their employees and investors and country, and who still feel as pure as the driven snow, no matter what anybody may say to or about them? And so many of these heartless PPs now hold big jobs in our federal government, as though they were leaders instead of sick.
What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next. Simply can’t. Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody’s telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!”
Most of us are in no position to make real diagnoses of PP in an individual, especially somebody we only know of via the media. Yet so many of the most successful leaders in government and business appear (to me) to conform to the stereotype.
I think the PP lens is an effective tool for comprehension of incomprehensible times .
The question remains – why do we let these people assume power over us?
I think KV is casting the first stone. Isn’t there a psychopathic tendency to making your name via Playboy?
And which came first? PPs or success? Are people successful because they’re will to sacrifice a degree of morality, or are they corrupted by their success? And to what extent is a diagnosis of psychopathic tendency an indication of one’s own frustrations? Aren’t we just saying we’re morally superior because we’re envious of others’ success?
I’m not saying that we all want to be on the telly encouraging people to put 9-year-old daughters on the stage, but if this is the lifestyle chosen by muppets, let them have it. In this media-obsessed world I think we pay too much attention to other people and not enough to ourselves. And if we’re that bothered by the poor quality of those governing then all we need to do is take a stand.
Hi Proops,
I don’t understand the “KV & Playboy” stuff. I think he was interviewed by them over the years (wasn’t everyone?) but I’m not aware of KV “making his name” via Playboy (am I wrong?). My understanding is that he wrote short stories for magazines before getting his novels published.
Re: “which came first? PPs or success”
I guess it depends on whether the “PP condition” is something one is born with, predisposed to or “catches” I guess!
I think if the tendency to behave this way achieves success and is rewarded – then like any behaviour it can become reinforced – i.e. if it works then keep doing it.
Re: “to what extent is a diagnosis of psychopathic tendency an indication of one’s own frustrations? Aren’t we just saying we’re morally superior because we’re envious of others’ success?”
No! I thought part of the strength of KV’s point is that the condition should be considered like “appendicitis or athlete’s foot”.
i.e. there’s NO judgment involved – rather it’s a “fact based medical diagnosis” – so fortunately we can forget about moral judgments.
Re “Aren’t we just saying we’re morally superior because we’re envious of others’ success?”
No. We’re saying “It’s possible to diagnose a medical condition that helps explain why certain people behave so horribly”.
Of course – it’s a very simplistic theory – that’s part of it’s attraction to me I guess – but I think it makes sense. I’ve worked with and for people who appear to have PP characteristics and they are often high achievers. Our problem appears to be that (nature? Darwin? society?) seems to REWARD them with “success”.
So maybe it’s futile to worry about it? Maybe it’s like saying “Isn’t it a shame that those nice Red Deer in the park will insist on fighting with those sharp antlers… however can we stop them being so nasty to each other?”
Re: “Muppets on the telly” – sure, you and I are in agreement
They all deserve each other! So long as i don’t have to watch.
Piers Morgan actually makes (very near the top of) a personal filter list of people whose participation in something deems it particularly unwatchable.
Beyond this – after what he did and was sacked for at the Mirror OUGHT to make him unemployable in the media… yet apparently TV producers don’t agree. Rather like Mandleson OUGHT not to be allowed anywhere near government… yet apparently it’s OK for him to run half of it despite being unelected!
I listened to DiD today as I had it on while tidying up the kitchen… and stayed with it. It’s obviously not a serious interview program, yet KW gave PM enough rope to hang himself!
Re: “And if we’re that bothered by the poor quality of those governing then all we need to do is take a stand”
Agreed.
Although apparently this is yet another area where I disagree with the majority of my peers – as in the recent elections only 38% of us bothered to take an interest and vote.
I’m becoming ever more used to belonging to small niche fringes – is it part of getting old?
Sigh…