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WoW -- This Rosen character could be the leading candidate for an example of self-righteous political Sophistry. His spin on circular reasoning is the MOST Moebius-like I've ever seen, ie. start out with a premise, follow it with excrutiating attention & focus until you demonstrate it actually means the opposite of what you claim, and insist that's the PROOF of your argument.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8735926/One-in-25-business-leaders-could-be-a-psychopath.htmlOne in 25 business leaders 'could be a psychopath'
As many as one in 25 company bosses could be a psychopath, according to a new study.
By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent
7:30AM BST 02 Sep 2011
Psychopaths are defined by their lack of moral instincts, but many are able to hide this by a natural ability to charm and manipulate both their seniors and subordinates.
While some psychopaths are outwardly aggressive and destructive, factors like a happy upbringing can help others to mimic colleagues and fit in at work.
The capacity of the 'successful psychopath' to identify and outwardly display the qualities corporate leaders admire helps them climb the career ladder quickly despite being poor managers.
This makes it virtually impossible to tell the difference between a psychopath and a genuinely good boss, leading psychologists said in a BBC Horizon programme to be screened on Wednesday.
Paul Babiak, a New York psychologist, said: "Psychopaths really aren't the kind of person you think they are ... you could be living with or married to one for 20 years or more and not know that person is a psychopath.
"Part of the problem is that the very things we're looking for in our leaders, the psychopath can easily mimic.
"Their natural tendency is to be charming. Take that charm and couch it in the right business language and it sounds like charismatic leadership".
Prof Bob Hare of the University of British Columbia in Canada said as many as one in 100 Americans have some psychopathic characteristics.
He added: "A psychopath can actually put themselves in your skin, intellectually not emotionally.
"What this allows them to do is use words to manipulate and con and to interact with you without the baggage of feeling your pain."
: Horizon: Are You Good Or Evil? will be screened on BBC TWO at 9pm on Wednesday, September 7
Elvis wrote:This piece from The Telegraph supports the idea that a disproportionate number of psychopaths---by their lack of empathy, their desire to hold power over others, their facility as glib liars and their readiness to do 'whatever it takes'---will acquire positions of power and responsibility. These 'advantages' will constantly win out. Among the higher socioeconomic ranks, I think the number is probably higher than one in 25.
Quick link: Who goes to right wing rallies, and why?
By Kim on August 24, 2011
I don’t always agree with Bernard Keane but I think he is right on the money on the question of the demographics and motivations of participants in right wing rallies such as the recent ones in Canberra, in his first paragraph:
…the motivating force behind these groups appears to be more about expressing resentment about social and economic change in recent decades, and particularly because such changes have delivered nothing but difficulties for the demographics we’re talking about: social change has undermined the once-dominant status of older white heteros-xual people and males in particular, and, in the Australian context, economic changes have squeezed them, along with everyone else, into a far more competitive, market-based economy that no longer delivers the sort of certainty they grew up with and that Generation X, in particular, never had.
For such people, Gillard’s gender (and unmarried status) or Obama’s race are not so much a problem as a high-profile, indeed inescapable, symbol of how much the world has changed and changed in ways that deliver nothing but pain for such people.
I think there’s probably an aspect of the phenomenon he identifies in the second para, but I am very far from being as confident as he is that racism and sexism are not a big part of the picture.
He’s also spot on about the ludicrous claims about ‘censorship’. And about the way the Coalition is essentially using this diffuse ressentiment to contribute to its recreation of the febrile atmosphere of 1975.
Stock trader: Europe will collapse because ‘Goldman Sachs rules the world’
Posted on 09.26.11
By Stephen C. Webster
...
Rastani added: “Personally, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for three years. I have a confession, which is, I go to bed every night and I dream of another recession. I dream of another moment like this. Why? Because people don’t seem to really remember. The depression in the 30′s wasn’t just about a market crash. There were some people who were prepared to make money from that crash. I think anybody can do that.”
“What I would say to everybody is, get prepared. It’s not the time right now to, wishfully thinking the government’s going to sort things out. The governments don’t rule the world. Goldman Sachs rules the world. Goldman Sachs does not care about this rescue package, neither does the big funds.”
“In less than 12 months, my prediction is, the savings of millions of people is going to vanish. And this is just the beginning.”
blanc wrote:"Someone was paid, and probably quite well, to write something that should have been Swiftian satire but sadly isn't."
tangential question. Do sociopaths, including oligarchical, understand satire or indeed have a sense of humour? Can anyone call to mind one who is good for a laugh?
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