BY LAWRENCE DIGGS, Roslyn 3:05 a.m. CDT, October 20, 2011
In part...
According to Stout, one in 25 people is a sociopath. That's 100 times more people than have colon cancer.
Sociopaths are often quite gifted at manipulating well-meaning people into horrendous antisocial acts. Sociopaths are charming, intelligent and well groomed, so they are well positioned to be trusted, loved and followed by unsuspecting victims. Their ability to position their destructive deeds as unfortunate but “pragmatic solutions” make them appear to be “decisive leaders,” so they quickly rise to super power positons, climbing the mountains of misery they manufacture.
Sociopaths are often too clever to engage in mere serial killing. Anyway they would just get bored with that after awhile.
They get into politics and religion. There they can cause millions to suffer and die for God and country and get paid well for it. Or to get closer to the action and get paid even better, they might become merchants of death, selling arms.
They often become leaders of cults or supremacist groups. They know their group isn't superior to any other group, but they derive great entertainment from goading otherwise loving, peaceful people into hating and fighting each other.
Are sociopaths running the world? Are we being manipulated by sociopaths in our families, jobs and social groups? Read Stout's book, “Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths Among Us” by Robert D. Hare or “Political Ponerology (A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes)” by Andrzej M. Lobaczewski. Then you decide.
