I talked to a social liberal. She said she knows personally many politicians. Politicians are not psychopaths, she said. They honestly believe that drugs are bad for you. That’s why they prohibit it. They honestly believe that prostitutes are forced. So that’s why they’re against it.
Also they need votes and that’s what most voters honestly believe.
You know what. Maybe she’s right. Then again, maybe muslim religious leaders honestly believe they honestly save you from hell fire, when they beat ahmadiyah movements up for undermining their authority.
Then again, maybe ugly women honestly believe women are being oppressed when they prohibit prettier women from staring in porn.
Maybe single males actually believe that no women would want to share when they prohibit sex outside life long monogamous marriage. I know. That’s what I actually believed when I were single.
Maybe the thugs that stab you in the back and take your wallet honestly believe that they are performing appendix removal operation for you.
Who care what they believe? If you pay attention that they may be right, you will end up having to argue with millions of millions of total nonsense that somehow justify their acts to you.
Notice that all those strange beliefs follow the same pattern. It justifies acts that believe them. Those are acts that we usually called evil, like using force and fraud or limiting individuals’ freedom. There is a reason why people entertain such beliefs in the first place.
After all, how do they believe all those nonsense in the first place anyway? Simple. Those nonsense reduce the amount of hostility they will get for harming others.
Why shouldn’t they? If I beat people and I said I want money, I would have to face the cops. If I beat people and says it’s God’s will, and somehow the crowd buy it, I get less enemies. It’s toward my best interest to say it’s God’s will. In fact, it probably doesn’t hurt much to actually believe it’s indeed God’s will if that can help me convincing others more. Who knows, many people actually want to see somebody got beaten up. They just need a good fairy tales to justify it.
It’s their best interests to entertain it. It’s not to your best interest to entertain it.
Presuming they are psychopaths and not bother entertaining their nonsense allow you to see clearly what you should do. Do not let those people have power over you. Once people have power over you, it’s game over.
Like most psychopaths, politicians and society make laws criminalizing consensual behavior. It’s simple. They want to enslave you. They want to have something to justify their acts when they they feel like beating you up. That’s what psychopaths do. They blame the victim. And may be they’re right. If you’re a coward that reward their oppression with compliance and benefit nonsense with attention, why shouldn’t people pick on you?
Then again, who says we’re not psychopaths?
I don’t go around robbing people and raping women. Does that mean I am not a psychophath? Who knows? Even if I were, I still wouldn’t go around robbing people and raping chicks. It’s not toward my best interest to do so. I may go to jail and stuff. There are saver ways to get laid and rich.
Imagine if ALL of us believe that we won’t be punished at all for robbing people and raping chicks. How many do you think will do that?
Say 5% would do it. A reasonable number. Imagine if 5% people actually do that and get away with it and every body knows they get away with it. How many would do that the next day? I’d say 100%. In fact, normal people would have gone extinct and everybody would have been a psychopath if “evil” people will just get away with things. The truth is, quite often, evil people does get away with things.
History shows again and again that majority of humans will kill, slaughter, rape, and who knows what when they know they’ll get away with it. Genocide is the norm. Schindler is the exception. Most people are NOT like Schindler. Most are like Genghish Khan. In fact, most people are descendants of people like Genghish Khan. That’s the kind of people that are successful in the gene pool
Yes, like most psychopaths, people would just come up with something to rationalize and justify their acts. Just look what our bible teach: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081109135717AAEZFlL. That’s David, a hero in the bible, killing 100 Philistines just to collect their foreskins. What’s the difference between what he does and what psychopaths would do? Somehow, we just believe David’s justification. And that’s a moral compass most people believe in. Why shouldn’t anyone be psychopaths then? I’d be surprised if anyone is not a psychopath with that kind of moral compass.
David’s dilemma is simple. Usually killing is politically incorrect. Yet his cost and reward function changes. If it’s the philistines, killing is actually rewarding. He can get the king’s daughter. So great. What would any Dave do? Who wouldn’t start collecting those foreskins? Hell, till now many still think it’s actually a good act. If societies approve you for killing people, if killing people is profitable, what would a psychopath and normal people both do? Kill. So what’s the difference?
What about tortures? How many monks love torturing and raping naked women under pretext of driving out demons in the middle ages? What do we call them? Psychopaths? I like to call them majority. In fact, not realizing this is a very psychopathic delusion.
You can’t say someone is honest just because he hasn’t had a chance to steal. Power corrupts, people say. Here is an easier way to see that. People are always corrupt. When they don’t have power, they’re not corrupt for the simple obvious reason they can’t. Once they have the powah, they behave as what they truly are.
You don’t just give your car keys to some strangers and expect that they’ll return the car and pays you rent.
There are 2 ways to analyze most similar situations.
- People are not normally psychopaths. However, when they see and know that violent pays so much, they become a psychopaths.
- People are inherently psychopaths. They’re just not convinced that robbing and rapping are profitable yet and don’t have the guts to do it yet. Once they know, they do what all psychophats would do.
The difference between 1 and 2 is subtle and may be even mere philosophical. Both will correctly predict what people would do. Both prescribe that we need tough sentences against robbery if we want to deter people from doing it.
To be frank, #2 is simpler, and correctly predict the same act anyway.
In fact, I do not really understand the difference between homo economicus and psychopaths. What’s the real difference anyway? Aren’t we all? Show me some area where large number of people do not act like they are psychopaths. Maybe I can understand it.
In fact, most humans do presume that others are psychopaths. Why do we sign contracts? Why do we have letter of credit? Why not just send the good first and hope that the other guy is not a psychopath and will honor the deal? Because we know that the other side may be a psychopath too and hence, it’s toward our best interest that it’s toward his interest to pay up. Otherwise he won’t pay.
Even if the other side is not a psychopath, we also know that when they see that frauding us is profitable, they too will turn psychopaths and follow the same path.
If even in businesses, where relationship itself is an important social capital, we presume people are psychopaths that we put so many system to ensure that their selfish interests are properly aligned with ours, how much more we should do that in politic?
Anakin Skywalker: The Sith rely on their passion for their strength. They think inward, only about themselves.
Supreme Chancellor: And the Jedi don’t?
What would happen if you trust politicians even more than you trust your business partners, namely something more than at all?
History shows again and again what will happen to your wife and kids. Just look:
Who did that? Businessmen? No. Guess again. Politicians supported by the majority of the population. How can people that count on contracts in businesses could suddenly say, that we can trust politicians to decide on what’s best for our children and family?
Simple. Those people, are psychopaths too, just like the majority of voters. They don’t care about fairness. They don’t care about productivity. They just want a reason to justify robbing from the diligent and controlling the productive. The way to do so is to give power to politicians.
Just like an interviewed psychopath once tell how much he loves his wife that he beat up to death, social democrats also entertain a ridiculous delusion. That delusion is that somehow we can trust politicians, and they, are not psychopaths.
Fortunately, politicians are psychopaths too, and we know what’s the cure. Just bribe them.
Why it’s Simple and Accurate to Just Presume that Everyone is a Psychopath? is a post from: Free Market Forever
