• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    24 months ago

    Oh yeah - I get your point, and agree as far as that goes.

    I just think that a system that has to actually have laws in place to limit the abuses carried out by psychopaths in positions of power is self-evidently a failure. A society should have standards in place that either prevent psychopaths from gaining power or strip them of their power should they gain it.

    The world as a whole is not insane. Insanity is concentrated among those in positions of power. And we ignore it. We spend so much time and energy arguning back and forth about policy and ideology, and treating things as givens so all we can do is choose the next step in a series of events, when the reality is that the entire situation exists solely because the people with decision-making authority have led us to this situation, and that because they’re deeply mentally ill.

    I think we should be calling out the mental illness - putting the spotlight on that.

    So, for instance, any executive who would sign off on Disney trying to dodge responsibility for a death their negligence obviously caused is self-evidently mentally ill. It can only be the case that they have a lack of empathy, compassion and remorse that is pathological and therefore shouldn’t even be allowed to hold a position of public responsibility.

    That’s the way I see it. It just makes no sense at all, as a society, to allow people who are demonstrably willing to act in ways that cause suffering to have access to power over others. They should be removed from influential positions, and potentially removed from society as a whole, and should be under the care of mental health professionals rather than running loose, warping society to accommodate their own mental illness.

    • @Buffalox
      link
      14 months ago

      prevent psychopaths from gaining power or strip them of their power should they gain it.

      That would be nice, but I doubt it’s possible. Most psychopaths actually stay within the rules though, because they figure out it’s best for them socially.