But that’s not even the important question. Forget that Congresspeople on both sides of the “divide” are more likely to be lawyers than truck drivers.
The “lawyers” filter is just one of many filters put in place by sociopaths to favor sociopaths. Another such filter that was fought bitterly by Lysander Spooner was the licensing of lawyers (the licensing of lawyers has brought all lawyers under the power of judges, who are almost always bar-licensed ex-prosecutors). Before 1832 in Ohio, lawyers weren’t licensed. Spooner overturned the licensing of lawyers in 1836, but then it came back when he died.
It’s a huge benefit to the cause of consolidated power (“unquestionable tyranny”) be able to say “you can’t defend true justice unless you have a license, and we control the license.” Ultimately, this isn’t for any grand scheme, other than “we get to steal most of what you make, if we hold political power.”
If sociopaths make the laws and have a general predisposition to “never interfere with another sociopath who is trying to grow the overall size or scope of government power” then you start to see how sociopaths can consolidate power, even if there is no overt “conspiracy.” Of course, there are several actual conspiracies: the plan to profit from trading carbon credits was one of them, the Federal Reserve system was and remains another. The people who run those institutions have pocketed billions of dollars by creating them, and maintaining control of them.
If I can pay you $85,000,000,000 to protect a drug running ring, then the drug laws don’t apply to me. Then, consider the fact that if I do that, I can steal another $100,000,000,000 per year by maintaining a prison industrial complex that imprisons millions of people unjustly. This means that I can be a complete self-serving hypocrite, dominate everyone else, and not be dominated myself. It doesn’t matter whether you would do such a thing, if you had power (you probably would, unless you’re a modern Spooner or Thoreau-type). The kind of people who have that sort of power have instituted precisely that kind of system.
Those who benefit from it don’t need to support it to maintain it. It maintains itself, once it’s set in motion. Since it’s not a threat to them, they tolerate or even encourage it.
Getting emotional over politics as though it were a sports game—identifying with one color and screaming cheers for them, while heaping abuse on the other color’s fans—is a very good thing for the Professional Players’ Team; not so much for Team Voters.
What evidence do you have for this? Let’s test your theory against the evidence: The abolitionists were most successful when they used (emotional, moral appeals) or (dispassionate, pragmatic appeals)? I think that Douglass’s speeches contain your answer.
Also, what kind of monstrous idiot or jerk would you have been considered if you called yourself an abolitionist in the days of abolitionism, but weren’t an abolitionist?
If you believe your philosophy is correct, then you owe it to your philosophy to learn how to win. Unless the suffering of innocents is unimportant to you, in which case your philosophy has nothing to say about morality.
Sociopath is a psychiatric diagnosis which has a very specific meaning; using it outside of that context, especially as a pejorative towards people you disagree with, dilutes and pollutes that meaning.
This is especially true here, where your “sociopaths” are evidently very good long-term planners capable of coordinating through trust (the “general predisposition” not to harm other “sociopaths”). Needless to say, these are not exactly typical sociopathic traits; several of the diagnostic criteria for sociopathy/psychopathy depend on their relative absence. There is little evidence to suggest that even so-called subcriminal sociopaths, such as are found in slightly elevated numbers in CEO positions, are as a rule much less impulsive or unreliable than the standard model.
In the dual interests of accuracy and minimizing the demonization of the mentally ill, can we agree to avoid using the term sociopath when “power-hungry asshole” is sufficient?
The “lawyers” filter is just one of many filters put in place by sociopaths to favor sociopaths. Another such filter that was fought bitterly by Lysander Spooner was the licensing of lawyers (the licensing of lawyers has brought all lawyers under the power of judges, who are almost always bar-licensed ex-prosecutors). Before 1832 in Ohio, lawyers weren’t licensed. Spooner overturned the licensing of lawyers in 1836, but then it came back when he died.
It’s a huge benefit to the cause of consolidated power (“unquestionable tyranny”) be able to say “you can’t defend true justice unless you have a license, and we control the license.” Ultimately, this isn’t for any grand scheme, other than “we get to steal most of what you make, if we hold political power.”
If sociopaths make the laws and have a general predisposition to “never interfere with another sociopath who is trying to grow the overall size or scope of government power” then you start to see how sociopaths can consolidate power, even if there is no overt “conspiracy.” Of course, there are several actual conspiracies: the plan to profit from trading carbon credits was one of them, the Federal Reserve system was and remains another. The people who run those institutions have pocketed billions of dollars by creating them, and maintaining control of them.
If I can pay you $85,000,000,000 to protect a drug running ring, then the drug laws don’t apply to me. Then, consider the fact that if I do that, I can steal another $100,000,000,000 per year by maintaining a prison industrial complex that imprisons millions of people unjustly. This means that I can be a complete self-serving hypocrite, dominate everyone else, and not be dominated myself. It doesn’t matter whether you would do such a thing, if you had power (you probably would, unless you’re a modern Spooner or Thoreau-type). The kind of people who have that sort of power have instituted precisely that kind of system.
Those who benefit from it don’t need to support it to maintain it. It maintains itself, once it’s set in motion. Since it’s not a threat to them, they tolerate or even encourage it.
What evidence do you have for this? Let’s test your theory against the evidence: The abolitionists were most successful when they used (emotional, moral appeals) or (dispassionate, pragmatic appeals)? I think that Douglass’s speeches contain your answer.
Also, what kind of monstrous idiot or jerk would you have been considered if you called yourself an abolitionist in the days of abolitionism, but weren’t an abolitionist?
If you believe your philosophy is correct, then you owe it to your philosophy to learn how to win. Unless the suffering of innocents is unimportant to you, in which case your philosophy has nothing to say about morality.
Sociopath is a psychiatric diagnosis which has a very specific meaning; using it outside of that context, especially as a pejorative towards people you disagree with, dilutes and pollutes that meaning.
This is especially true here, where your “sociopaths” are evidently very good long-term planners capable of coordinating through trust (the “general predisposition” not to harm other “sociopaths”). Needless to say, these are not exactly typical sociopathic traits; several of the diagnostic criteria for sociopathy/psychopathy depend on their relative absence. There is little evidence to suggest that even so-called subcriminal sociopaths, such as are found in slightly elevated numbers in CEO positions, are as a rule much less impulsive or unreliable than the standard model.
In the dual interests of accuracy and minimizing the demonization of the mentally ill, can we agree to avoid using the term sociopath when “power-hungry asshole” is sufficient?