"... somebody affected with a personality disorder marked by aggressive, violent, antisocial thought and behavior, and a lack of remorse or empathy."
We on the progressive left in this country have long known that our fearless-frat-boy-in-chief is (to put it simply) not wrapped too tight. (and inherently evil) I myself have always had a uneasy feeling that Bush was either back on the sauce or perhaps taking regular medication for some undisclosed mental health condition. I mean, how is it possible that George Bush walks around every day, clueless and carefree; ne'er a qualm - no facial ticks or twitches, while knowing deep down that his corrupt, despotic-style of governance is alone responsible for growing tyranny here at home and endless death and destruction abroad?
He's got to know, right?
Ultimately, George Bush wakes up everyday to a world in which he feels he's entitled. His world view is both myopic and misanthropic. With a stroke of a pen and seemingly without a semblance of compunction or remorse, Bush has calmly and casually killed, injured, tortured, ethnically-cleansed -- or condemned to a perpetual hell -- as many as a million people or more.
So, how does he compartmentalize?
The research of Dr. Hervey Cleckley and Dr. Robert Hare exploring the personality and character traits of psychopaths, when applied to George Bush, shows that he fits exactly the profile they developed for a classic psychopath. It's uncanny.
The study also showed that "Republicanism" as political and social ideology... is even worse than psychopathy.
Hervey Cleckley in his book, "The Mask of Sanity", describes the psychopath as a certain type of cruel manipulator whose harmful actions are accompanied by an absence of delusion. The psychopath, he wrote, "does not hear voices. In theory, he can foresee the consequences of injudicious or antisocial acts." A psychopath is a person who knows full well the difference between right and wrong and yet, without compunction, chooses to do wrong. Checkley cited the protagonist of The Incredible Charlie Carewe, a novel by Mary Astor, as a quintessential psychopath. "Charlie is a genius in reverse with dangerous charm. Sisters lie for him, parents defend him, friends obey him. While calmly and casually, Charlie Carewe literally gets away with murder."
The above is an excerpt from the book "Blood Relations" by Eric Konigsberg. He based the book on his great-uncle Harold, a convicted murderer.
The following story was written by Ed Martin for OpEdNews.com:
Robert Hare got first hand experience with psychopaths while working at a prison near Vancouver. Hare describes one inmate as having a winning personality, and he used it to test the limits of what Hare would do on his behalf. He lied endlessly, lazily, about everything, and it disturbed him not a whit whenever something in his file contradicted one of his lies.
Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist at the University of California, San Diego, says of the psychopath, "Typically the way a person like this maintains an inflated view of the self is by devaluing other people, taking advantage of them. If you look at the trail of a psychopath, you will see it littered with wounded, angry people."
Yes, better than 70% of the people in the United States alone, not counting more than 20 million people in Iraq and an untold number in the rest of the world are wounded and angry.
Indeed...
Ever notice how George Bush picks a usually derogatory or diminutive nickname for just about everyone around him? "Turdblossom" quickly comes to mind. But, there are plenty others.
Here are some of shrub’s very favorite if not updated nicknames; courtesy of Wikipedia:
For himself:
• Dubya, 43
• The Decider, April 18, 2006
Family:
• Poppy, 41, Old Man - George H. W. Bush
• Bushie - Laura Bush (this is a mutual nickname)
Foreign leaders:
• Dino (short for Dinosaur) - Jean Chrétien, Prime Minister of Canada
• Steve - Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
• Pootie-Poot - Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
• Bandar Bush - Bandar bin Sultan, ambassador to the United States from Saudi Arabia
• Landslide - Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Staff:
• Izzy, Altoid Boy* - Special Assistant Israel Hernandez (for his role as provider of breath mints to the President on the campaign trail)
• Boy Genius, Turd Blossom - Senior Advisor Karl Rove
• Condi - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
• The World's Greatest Hero (positive and negative) - Secretary of State Colin Powell
• Big O (current), Pablo (former) - Secretary of the Treasury Paul O'Neill
• Fredo, Speedy - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
• Danny Boy, Dan the Man - Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Bartlett
• Ari-Bob - White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer
• High Prophet, Hurricane Karen - Karen Hughes, Special Advisor; Director of Communications under Texas Governor George W. Bush
• The Blade - Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels
• Big Country - Director of FEMA Joe Allbaugh
• Brownie - Director of FEMA Michael D. Brown
• Tree Man - Unnamed forest service official
• La Margarita - Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
• Brother George - CIA Director George Tenet
• Tangent Man - Chief of Staff Andrew Card
• Sweet Jan - Justice Department liaison to White House Liaison Jan E. Williams Acosta
• Tiny - Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage
Politicians:
• Pablo - Paul Wellstone, Democratic Senator, Minnesota
• Big George - George Miller, Democratic Congressman, California
• Freddy Boy, Freddo - Fred Upton, Republican Congressman from Michigan
• Congressman Kickass - John Sweeney, Republican Congressman, New York
• Speak - Dennis Hastert, Republican Congressman from Illinois and former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• Big O - Olympia Snowe, Republican Senator, Maine
• Nellie (former), Benney (former), Benator (current) - Ben Nelson, Democratic Senator, Nebraska (Daily Show, 02/28/05)
• Ellis - Chuck Schumer, Democratic Senator, New York
• Bama, Rock - Barack Obama, Democratic Senator, Illinois
• Quasimodo, Big Time - Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States of America
• Corndog - John Cornyn, Republican Senator, Texas
• Maxie - Max Baucus, Democratic Senator, Montana
• Ali - Barbara Boxer, Democratic Senator, California
• Frazier - Diane Feinstein, Democratic Senator, California
• The Brettmeister - Brett M. Kavanaugh
• Wonder girl - Hillary Clinton
Journalists:
• The Cobra - Maureen Dowd
• Stretch/Little Stretch - David Gregory, NBC
• Stretch - Dick Kyle, Bloomberg News
• Super Stretch - Bill Sammon, then of The Washington Times, now of The Washington Examiner
• The Commissioner - George Will
• (actual nickname claimed to be unprintable "in a family publication") - Dana Milbank of The Washington Post
• Dulce - Candy Crowley, CNN
• Factor - Bill O'Reilly
Others:
• Kenny Boy - Kenneth Lay
• Taylorwoo - Liam Taylor
• Weadie, Weadnik - author Doug Wead
• Dre - Andre Anselme
Hare developed a system of identification for psychopaths that includes various personality and character traits:
• Glibness/superficial charm
• Grandiose sense of self-worth
• Pathological lying
• Cunning/manipulative
• Lack of remorse or guilt
• Shallow affect
• Callous/lack of empathy
• Failure to accept responsibility for actions
• Parasitic lifestyle
• Lack of realistic, long term goals
• Irresponsibility
• Criminal versatility
There are plenty of examples of actions by the neocons to match the above traits, and perhaps someday a presidential historian will chronicle them. I have no such inclination to do so now.
Here are some more known character traits of a psychopath:
• Uses defense mechanism of projection
• Blames others for own faults/mistakes
• Impervious to anxiety
• Subject to bouts of depression
• Not remorseful
• Willful lack of insight
• No self humor
• Doesn’t appreciate being the butt of jokes
• Uses neologisms
• Lack of probity
• Doesn’t tolerate societal obligations
• Never learns from mistakes
• Thinks in terms of black and white. No nuances
Now, onto the Neocons:
If you really think about it, there’s an inordinate number of Republicans exhibiting psychopathic tendencies in positions of power/influence across America. I'm not saying the following people are full-blown psychopaths, but all of them have demonstrated disturbing tendencies, and they are loyal to Bush to a fault. Likely suspects include: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Karl Rove, David Addington, Condoleezza Rice, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Pearle, William Krystal, and Douglas Feith. Rounding out the motley crew are a few more neocon-wannabes already paying a price for their psychopathic foibles; such as, Randy "Duke" Cunningham, Bob Ney and Jack Abramoff. Let’s hope they’re not the only ones to pay for their crimes.
So, the question is: do psychopaths naturally become Republicans? Or, do Republicans, for some cabalistic reason, actually admire and adopt psychopathic behavior as their highest ideal?
Psychopathic behavior is a learned process, whether conscious or subconscious, usually beginning in the formative years of life. So, whether it’s somehow acquired through a quasi-hereditary osmosis process, apparently, nascent psychopaths are more often nurtured in Republican family units than in any other political party persuasion. Normal anthropological distribution wouldn’t dictate that an abnormal number of psychopaths end up among neocons. But it happens. Their immersion in conservative culture and society naturally warps their minds and leads them to think that psychopathy is normal, ordinary behavior. They've been taught that way of thinking as the highest ideal and that it is the only way to deal with the world.
Well, they do support and agree with the psychopath-in-chief and his dark mentor.
There is one advantage to us for this increase in psychopaths above the expected number among Republicans. Since we now know that the preponderance of psychopaths are Republicans, when they reveal themselves as Republicans, its much easier to identify the psychopaths among us, to be forewarned, and be prepared to take defensive action.
Good point. But, it doesn’t allow much for the proverbial ounce of prevention. (other than culling the herd one by one as they’re exposed)
I’m kidding!
Peace