Winter Patriot Community Blog

Previous Part 1 here

Part 2. UNDERSTANDING THE ENEMY

In Part 1 I spoke about the enemy being the psychopaths. The term “psychopath” is outmoded in the psychological and psychiatric communities as a diagnostic term and has been replaced with “sociopath”. I don't use “sociopath” because it doesn't convey the same meaning both popularly and medically. In my reading of psychiatric literature, sociopathy tends to look at behaviour that is obviously antisocial in that it is a rejection of or a disregard for society's laws and mores. It tends not to cover those people who shape society's laws and thinking for their own malevolent interests. “Psychopath”, I think, conveys this generalised malevolence better and so I use it for preference.

Psychopathy is all about power, power over others. Psychopaths make up about five percent of our population and given that they are attracted to power, they end up in our governments and professions such as law, police, medicine, religions, military and media. In short, anywhere there is money, status and power. They have a huge influence in shaping and running our (Western) society. In fact, if psychopaths could design a society, this is pretty much what it would look like! We have a society whereby we all as individuals find ourselves competing with each other in nearly every aspect of our lives. We have a society that is based on hierarchies as the organising principle. Hierarchies are designed to abuse. Hierarchies take power and autonomy away from everyone but the leader. Those at the higher levels are compensated by being given some power over those below but they still lose their autonomy.

It behooves us, then, to understand and identify these malevolent actors. No change of any lasting benefit is going to happen without this knowledge, I believe.

Psychopaths have no conscience or, at least, have irretrievably buried it. They have no feelings of empathy for anyone else on this planet, though they can mimic empathy quite well, but not perfectly. They are incapable of making real friends. They see other people only as resources to be used and they consider it their right to use everyone. All antagonism towards them or non co-operation with them is viewed as unreasonable, even outrageous. They lie and deceive consantly. They see nothing wrong with it for two reasons.
Firstly, they don't really understand the difference between right and wrong, only what's right and wrong for them and that is intimately connected to what they want. They are unable to self-reflect. (I read once that “a psychopath doesn't know who he is. He only knows what he wants”. I think this is very accurate and accords with my regretably extensive personal experience.)
Secondly, they do not understand what “truth” is. That may sound bizarre but it's true (no pun intended!). “Truth” is about what is real, what exists, what is factual. Given a chance, psychopaths behave as if they were God; that they create reality. When they lie, they are creating an alternate reality, they believe. And all too often, for a while, it may appear that they have, provided they can convince enough people, that is (think 911/War on Terror). But reality, Truth, sooner or later makes itself felt. Insanity is being disconnected from reality. In this sense, psychopaths are insane. They are highly functioning, yet insane.

So, because of this reality disconnect, not only will they use and abuse us at every opportunity, they will also lead us and themselves into disaster. Even if you are in the priviledged inner circle, disaster awaits you because you are following someone whose map doesn't reflect reality. It doesn't reflect the truth and while ever you (or a nation) can't see the truth for yourself, not seeing the world as it actually is, you will suffer. Hence, “and the truth will make you free”! (Truer words never spoken. Couldn't resist it, sorry!). I think it is worth while to pause for a moment here to consider, again, the authors and adherents of religious scriptures that call for war and genocide.

The sad part is that because we have all grown up in a society that may as well have been designed by psychopaths, we can't see the truth for all the layers of lies and misconceptions we have been fed since birth and we pass them on unwittingly. And we suffer and we cause suffering. We are like fish who cannot perceive water even though it is all around us. We don't have a point of comparison. We have always been in it. Anyway that's the subject for another part. This part is about understanding the perpertrators rather than the victims. I have been debating with myself whether it is worthwhile discussing how psychopaths get to be the way they are. We'll see. But one thing that is definitely worthwhile discussing before I leave this part is the difference between fighting and war.

Everybody fights but only psychopaths wage war. Fighting is short term “argy-bargy” whether it is a punch-up in the local pub on Saturday night or tribes going on raids and indulging in a little raping and pillaging. But it is short term and the aggressor leaves (albeit with a few slaves, maybe). War is far more serious. It's total. The aggressor does not leave unless he is taking everything of value or has firmly emplaced a comprador class to do its bidding (20th century colonialisim, Israel excepted). There's no possibility of a return stoush next Saturday night. War is designed to destroy a whole culture; to subsume it; to enslave it; to squash the life out of it. To illustrate the difference, The American government waged war on Vietnam but they were, through it, fighting (indirectly) the Russians first and then the Chinese who were supporting North Vietnam. Only Vietnam was at risk of not surviving. Only Vietnam was suffering from war. This has significance further down in the essay. Again, only psychopaths wage war. They are the only ones who have the insatiable need. They are the only ones disconnected enough from reality and from any feelings for fellow human beings to dismiss the appalling consequences for others and even themselves. They are the only ones with no sense of proportion. To slaughter a whole people to have even more money when they couldn't spend in ten lifetimes what they have already. You can only order around a certain number of servants. You can only wear one pair of shoes at a time. (Where are you Imelda?)

Colonialism was war waged by psychopathic European (and American) rulers against indigenous peoples all over the world. The indigenous peoples were defeated often in cases where they needn't have been because they didn't understand that the Europeans meant to exterminate them. They responded to the Europeans as they did to their neighbours when they fought with them and presumed they were just being muscled for a bit of territory, not the whole lot. They made treaties with the Europeans and gave more weight to what they said rather than to what they did. Basic mistake. Psychopaths lie and there is absolutely no advantage or point in making deals with a liar.

These indigenous peoples didn't fight genocidal wars with each other because had one tribe done so it would have found itself fighting all the neighbouring tribes. They would have had to combine to preserve themselves against this people that opted for extermination. They didn't realise that the European invader was waging war on them and that they would have to respond accordingly to survive (or perhaps they were just hoping against the evidence, as happens all too often). Had they done so they would have combined to fight together. The North American Indians eventually did this but by then it was too late. If they had combined much earlier, they would likely have prevailed. This is why the Europeans, then the Americans and now the Israelis place so much effort into setting one tribe or faction against another and the central role of false flag attacks in facilitating this. They do this same thing but on a psychological level with their own domestic populations (911/London/Madrid notwithstanding) and for the same reason. Because if we could see them for what they are and combine we could easily throw them out.

This has a direct implication for the coming war against Iran. When Bush (or more correctly, his puppet masters) declared war on Afghanistan and then Iraq, to those that could see, he was actually declaring war on the whole planet. If Russia and China can see this, that they are next, that the people behind US/UK/Israel aim to be the world's masters, then you can expect them to attack with full force the moment Iran is bombed. They will see that their survival is at stake and that moment will be their best chance. If that is what they are planning, then I would expect them to remain relatively quiet and not be issuing belicose warnings to the US/Israel so as to maximise the surprise factor when they do attack in response. And that is, indeed, how it is playing out. I would also expect that Russia and China would see that these wouldbe world masters are disconnected from reality and would therefore promote similarly disconnected types into positions of power and would be nowhere near as formidable as they present themselves to be. Recent exampes of this incompetence and hubris are Lebanon 2006 and Georgia 2008.

Up till now, the US and the UK have been playing “argy-bargy” with Russia and China through so called proxy wars such as Vietnam. These were about markets and political influence. They weren't about survival. At least, not for Russia and China or the US. But all that has changed with the attack on Afghanistan and Iraq. This is about access to oil and strategic positioning for “First Strike” capability. This is about survival. And both Russia and China are very experienced at surviving.
So the psychopaths in and behind the US/UK/Israel governments are leading us all off the cliff thinking they will be all right because they can fly. Reality is about to teach them (and everybody else) a hard lesson.

This may seem an overly pessimistic conclusion to some but when the stakes are high and the downside is great, it is prudent to be pessimistic rather than optimistic. Besides it accords with reality. And the reality is that psychopaths are driven on their destructive paths and they never change. Hoping they will have a change of heart is worse than a waste of time. Negotiating with them is similarly pointless. They will never understand our point of view, our world view. Their condition is irreversible. This makes their motives and goals (our exploitation if not destruction) and to some extent, their methods (fear, threats and violence) very predictable. Certainly, if a strategy has worked for them in the past, they will repeat it.

Actually, there are three basic strategies that are used. First they try the charming lies routine. Then if this doesn't get them what they want, they use threats and violence. And finally if overcome by the victim or confronted by others, they play the victim. This holds true for both governments such as Israel and for individuals such as your average wifebeater and/or child abuser. The constant throughout is lying.

The only effective strategy is to accept that they are as they are (liars and destroyers) and to deal with them. I'll get to dealing with them after the next part, Understanding the Victims (that's you and me).

Next part here