Tuesday 15 February 2011

The Psychopaths of Capitalism by John Souter



The Psychopaths of Capitalism

The present aim of capitalism is quite simply to socialise the costs while being allowed to maximise and privatise the profits.

In a nutshell, its capitalism without moral or social responsibility.

In another article I called the players psychopaths. I used that pejorative term factually, not as a knee jerk reaction, but in the considered view of neuroscience and its application to the criminal traits of serial killers and their like.

The majority of psychopaths know the law, are often astute in its application and are aware of the moral values deemed as normal benchmarks by society. 

Where their flaw becomes apparent is their indifference to the values placed by both the law and normal society on such dispirit issues as the minor offence of littering or the gravest offence of killing. They treat both with the same casual, if any, remorse.

The same attitude has been adopted by all the players in this game, including those who are supposedly in the business of representing us and looking after our interests. 

Both, however, hide behind the façades of institutions; institutions which by design and practice have removed conscience from their covenants because applying it would increase costs at the expense of profits. They don't see such an attitude as corrupt they just see it as the normal game of global business - the world of dog eat dog and eat what you kill.

This explains their hubris and lack of remorse and appreciation of being saved from the stupidity of their own making; and their utter lack of conscience. To the extent they not only deem they had a right to be saved, they want to exploit the recovery by tilting the ballpark and reducing the rules all in their favour.

They even have the audacity to threaten if they don't get what they want they'll take the huff and their ball and find a better pitch. Which would be laughable, if we had a competent government with a backbone who said - Go, but before you do, it’s our ball, our pitch, our rules and our clothes you’re wearing. So strip off and piss off as far as that big van that's waiting for you by the touchline.

Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a government (apart from possibly Iceland) any where in the world that has this biological necessity of backbone that, supposedly, separates man from mollusc.

However, whatever the cost, - and I suspect to the normal citizen, if done fairly and in a forensic manner, they would be less than the approach presently adopted - their failures and the surreal fantasy of their values have been exposed, and we have had an expensive education in the worthless alchemy of their beliefs and the vacuous lexicon of their inner temples.

So, in the immortal words (except for Bush): Fool us once; shame on you - Fool us twice; shame on us.

But this is exactly what they are presently doing, with the connivance of governments.

Why is our government conniving with them? Well it may be panic which has undermined their competence and confidence. That may be regrettable but excusable.  

But, with twenty two millionaires in the cabinet and a party bankrolled by big business that confidence has to be allied with trick – a confidence trick designed to protect the value of their investments and portfolios and those of their backers by passing the bucks to the bewildered herd under the guise of austerity.

Austerity doesn’t feature in the concerns of the rich; it needs to be seismic, in the realms of catastrophe, before they feel the pinch. Meanwhile they hope the collateral damage inflicted by the shock and awe of their austerity measures will subdue the herd into stupefied subjection of stress, anguish and the chilling vice of penury.

The price paid by millions to support the avarice of a few psychopaths.

Think I’m being too harsh on them? Look for the remorse. 


contributed by John Souter

12 comments:

Apogee said...

Hi John,think I agree with you, just one question I would ask, If the banks were bankrupt,skint or however you would describe being without funds, it puzzles me why the Government didnt just nationalise the banks and then put in the money, the result would be the same but the government would (should) have had complete control of assets, not a huge debt with seemly no control of the banks operations. Maybe I am looking at it wrongly, maybe this is the result of electing inexperienced people to run a country where the financial system is run by sharks !

Elby the Beserk said...

I recall a programme on TV some years back in which the modern Corporation was given a psychological profile, as it were a human.

Conclusion - the Corporation is Psychopathic.

cynicalHighlander said...

Stripped Bare

So what do we do? Look to Cairo. I suspect that UK Uncut – the most coherent response so far to the economic transfer – could be the beginning of something very big: a mass citizens’ revolt against institutional theft. The point is not to overthrow the government: that must be done electorally in the UK. The point is to make it impossible to keep fleecing the nation to serve the elite. We go unarmed into this battle; but it’s the government that’s naked.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

Apogee - your analysis would be as relevant as mine, or anyone else's for that matter.

I suspect part of the reason was nationalising wasn't in mode in an era of privatisation, But most of the reason was down to sheer and unadulterated funk.

They had formed a mind-set, lifestyles and systems based on a myth which had less substance than smoke and mirrors and product wise, was testing the validity of alchemy to produce DNA from a fart.

All the measures actioned since are designed to protect this system. And while these players are deranged, they're not stupid; and eventually, if its not stopped now, we will find the psychopaths testing just how far down they can push us.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

Elby - I claim little in the field of prescience and wasn't aware of the programme you mention.

But if your part of a majority being fleeced by a minuscule minority it's always good to know there are others feeling the pain.

Apogee said...

Hi RA, Yeah, I'll go with that,I'm not sure about their level of training for the job, think from results their qualifications came from a bazaar somewhere, what frightens me is that nothing has changed.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

Cynical Highlander: the model of governance today is one of Human Resource Departments for the Financial Conglomerates.

Getting the right governance, or governance right, is the key to quarantining and regulating the social degeneracy inflicted on society as a whole.

Studies have shown, if individual feel they have the right and means with which to punish wrongs they become far more involved, cooperative and measured.

Unfortunately that's the function we expect our governments to do.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

Apogee: training, education and information can all be biased to suit programmes.

And yes, the money shamans are the winners in a crises of their own creation.

Makes you wonder whether it happened by chance or design.

Apogee said...

Hi RA, "Makes you wonder whether it happened by chance or design". Well there have been a few things which have looked like an ambush.
Remember there have been things which look like scams.
Apply the old logic, once is happenstance, twice is co-incidence, and three times is enemy action !

Follow the money to see where it went.When you reverse engineer the happenings to their beginnings the whole process looks suspicious in the extreme,each time there is a similar basic pattern to events. Our "leaders" as a group seem either larcenous, or stupid or both in the main.
Where did we go wrong?
Why can they not "learn lessons"?

subrosa said...

Hello John

I must apologise for not thanking you earlier for another splendid post. No, I don't think you're being too harsh. On the contrary, a less patient approach may be of benefit to most of us.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

Apogee - why learn when, they not only get off with it but profit by it?

And spectres are difficult to follow and almost impossible to pin down.

Crinkly & Ragged Arsed Philosophers said...

Rosa; my pleasure.
thanks.

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