Deeds

I have become aware of a few things over the last couple of years - one of which is this: that apparently (check the evidence) one in ten of us are sociopathic. Either that or psychopathic. Which apparently means that this one in ten is incapable of true empathy. That he/she sees human relationships in terms of profit and loss, taking advantage, and assumes that everyone else sees relationships in the same way. He/she will therefore take whatever he can, whatever he can get away with. Until the perceived loss outweighs the apparent gain. Hence career criminals.

Evidently, most of this one in ten carry on 'normal' lives. Because, in capitalist societies, 'doing well for yourself' is the norm - ie. doing better than, or exploiting your neighbour, as long as it makes a profit. Even killing them.

Trouble is when the sociopath gets huge power. And it seems to me that what we have now, perhaps it ever was, is some sociopaths with enormous unprecedented global power - the politicians are their puppets. Obama, for all his good words and smiley gestures, is a puppet. He has surrounded himself by his super-rich Wall Street backers - he has appointed the arch-angel of US imperialism as his special envoy, Henry Kissinger; the arch-angel of the so-called federal reserve, Greenspan, as another. He has not, as Michael Moore hoped, reversed all his pre-election promises: far from 'getting out of Iraq from Day 1' he has now committed US troops to whatever it is they think they are doing in Iraq for another 2 years, while surging even more stormtroopers into Afghanistan - 69,000 and counting. Why? Why? Is Afghanistan about to invade the US?

Count a man not by his words but by his deeds.

He is closing Guantamano, but increasing hidden 'rendition'. He wants to reduce nuclear weapons, which are a bit clumsy against guerrillas (freedom fighters?) - might be a bit of collateral damage, but increase weapons systems against 'insurgents' - ie. local people unhappy by being invaded and occupied by a 'superpower'.

In a bleak world, I take a little heart from Tony Benn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw0kQPE6adI

In other words, these sociopaths can operate at the lowest level - helping themselves to our belongings if they think we will not notice, or won't mind, or turn a blind eye - but on the highest, most powerful level, they invade countries. They bomb and destroy and kill - but they justify these actions, or try to, via the media that they control. The thing that I have relatively recently come to realise is the fact that they don't value any human life, other than their immediate families (?), and will arrange for random people they have never met to be killed in order to win the game. And for them it is a game. You and I might have a game of Monopoly or whatever, but these sociopaths are playing the game for real.

What can we do?