Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Twilight and breaking dawn of civilizations


Torture is in the news. How can anyone justify the use of torture in the 21st century? Hasn't our modern civilization evolved beyond that?

In a thought provoking essay titled "Twilight of the Psychopaths", Dr. Kevin Barrett, best known for his views on 9/11, has this to say about our modern civilization which I found very revealing.
Civilization, as we know it, is largely the creation of psychopaths. All civilizations, our own included, have been based on slavery and "warfare." Incidentally, the latter term is a euphemism for mass murder.
[...]
Psychopaths have played a disproportionate role in the development of civilization, because they are hard-wired to lie, kill, injure, and generally inflict great suffering on other humans without feeling any remorse. The inventor of civilization - the first tribal chieftain who successfully brainwashed an army of controlled mass murderers - was almost certainly a genetic psychopath. Since that momentous discovery, psychopaths have enjoyed a significant advantage over non-psychopaths in the struggle for power in civilizational hierarchies - especially military hierarchies. 
The Bush administration perfectly illustrates what Dr. Barrett is talking about. Yet even now that Bush and Cheney are out of office, very little seems to change in our political system. Why is that?
Behind the apparent insanity of contemporary history, is the actual insanity of psychopaths fighting to preserve their disproportionate power. And as that power grows ever-more-threatened, the psychopaths grow ever-more-desperate.
Oh but surely Obama is not a psychopath like Bush and Cheney.
Psychopaths go through life knowing that they are completely different from other people. They quickly learn to hide their lack of empathy, while carefully studying others’ emotions so as to mimic normalcy while cold-bloodedly manipulating the normals.
Does that sound a little like a description of a typical politician - cold-blooded, calculating, without feelings of remorse. Lacking a conscience. But how do the politicians maintain control over the rest of us?
One way they do this, is by manipulating shame and denial — emotions foreign to psychopaths but common and easily-induced among normals.
Think of the torture being committed in the name of American citizens as part of the "war on terror". Think of the shame you felt as an American when you realized this was happening. You didn't want to believe it was true. You wanted to deny it.
All of this psychopathic behaviour at the top of the social hierarchy is simply too shameful for ordinary people to see, so they avert their gaze, just as wives of husbands who are sexually abusing their children sometimes refuse to see what is happening in plain view.
Isn't this the advice that conservative commentator Peggy Noonan offered to America with regards to the revelations of torture?
“It’s hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking, ‘Oh, much good will come of that.’ Sometimes in life you want to keep walking… Some of life has to be mysterious."
When I heard those words, I was stunned. How could she say that? But perhaps these were not just some impromptu thoughts. Perhaps this was a well rehearsed performance, an exercise in psychological warfare. Perhaps this was a calculated move to manipulate the shame and guilt of the American people. Her message, "this is too shameful, so look away, and keep walking". But how is her message any different from the official message from the White House offered by Rahm Emanuel ?
This is not a time for retribution. It's a time for reflection. It is not a time to use our energy and our time in looking back, and in a sense of anger and retribution.
While this sounds like a perfectly rational statement, it is really a twisted manipulation of the truth as only a psychopathic government could do. It is just another attempt at psychologically manipulating the masses through shame and guilt. Taken together with the statement by the conservative Peggy Noonan, can't you see how there is a unified message being distributed by leaders of both political parties? Shame on you for feeling "angry". Shame on you for wanting "retribution". Instead "keep walking" and "don't look back". In fact deny to yourself that it ever happened.

No wonder it seems that America suffers multiple personality disorders. Our government is run by psychopaths that systematically psychologically abuse us from the time we are children. Most of us can't confront the truth. We can't see what is happening before our very eyes.

But ultimately as Christ said, "the Truth will set you Free". Here is what Jesus had to say to the psychopaths of his time.
"You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies."
So according to Christ the psychopaths feed on murder and lies. Not much has changed according to Dr. Barret except that war has gotten more sophisticated. In order to maintain control, the psychopaths must be able to sell their lies to the rest of us. But the internet may be changing that equation.
Why does the pathocracy fear it is losing control? Because it is threatened by the spread of knowledge.
The true peer to peer uncensored global communication that the internet allows is a first in history.
Today, thanks to new information technologies, we are on the brink of unmasking the psychopaths and building a civilization of, by and for the normal human being — a civilization without war, a civilization based on truth, a civilization in which the saintly few rather than the diabolical few would gravitate to positions of power. 
So, my children, there is hope. And if this is truly the "twilight of the psychopaths" then we may yet have to go through a period of darkness before we see the breaking dawn of a new age. But even then, it will be up to all of us to be continually vigilant in order to not fall under the spell of the psychopaths again.

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P.S. I want to thank MH who left a comment on my article "Martial Law coming to a country near you" which alerted me to the "Twilight of the Psychopaths" article by Kevin Barrett.

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