Is it Time for Psychological Evaluation of Candidates Seeking Office?
Torture! Cops beating a 15-year old girl! What has this nation become under the legacy of George W. Bush and the so-called Patriot Act?
Before you read this article, and so you can get a better understanding of what motivated its publication, please watch the below video of a "law" enforcement officer enforcing "justice" on a 15-year old girl by brutally beating her in a Seattle, Washington jail cell.(1)
Is this the United States you have come to know and love? Is the U.S. becoming a fascist state, alien to even the most recent of immigrants? Has Osama bin Laden turned out to be a benefit to a government predisposed to increasingly ignore tenets of the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution? Are federal, state and local governments using the threat of terrorism to "justify" all manner of conflict and war, invasions of privacy, unjust enrichment, special interest legislation and local brutality? There is increasing evidence that the answer to these questions is "yes."
Just as unworthy incumbents at the federal level must be voted out of office when their actions show imprudence or a failure to uphold their oath of office to the Constitution, incumbents at the state level must also be purged from the system when they become entrenched or abusive. But citizens need to wake up to thugs that have infiltrated the local levels as well, where they are at risk from overly-zealous police officers, entrenched district judges, DAs and congress people. These mini-tyrants do not serve the public interest but are often in office for status reasons or to dramatize domination over people they have grown up with.
Unfortunately, like serial killers that "seemed so normal" until apprehended, one can never be sure which congressmen, judges, district attorneys or police officers are going to erupt in anti-social behavior like that displayed in the above video. Almost more alarming, studies have shown that when anger or hatred cannot be openly displayed, it often becomes covert and is inflicted in other ways. Fortunately, the vast number of people in the population, especially those practicing Judeo-Christian and Scientology values, either dissipate such anger and hatred or direct it toward constructive endeavors. However this is not true of all individuals, whether private citizens or government officials, involved with religion or not.
The difference between a private citizen and a public official is significant. A public official, unlike a citizen, is entrusted with vast amounts of collective power. A policeman is permitted to carry guns, tasers, bats and other weapons which s/he is authorized to use on the citizen if the "judgment" of such officer warrants such. At higher levels, a judge or district attorney is permitted to levy fines, imprisonment and punishments on citizens based on their "judgment" of the situation. State legislatures, often filled with people who failed to attain federal positions or successful law practices, are many times forgotten or invisible to the public.(2) At the highest levels, federal congressmen and the president, are permitted to take a nation to war where the mass-killing of thousands or millions of people rests with their "judgment" -- and "sanity." Congressmen are permitted to make laws that, in their "judgment," are constitutional and beneficial for the "general welfare" of the nation or state. In all of these cases judgment is paramount, but before judgment can be rational, the individuals passing judgment should be "sane" enough to be able to PASS judgment. Unfortunately, the same "sanity" that permits individuals to defeat their political opponents is an ability that can be used to abuse power, hence abuse the public. Such individuals are therefore quite good at hiding their cunning abilities (or even their mental state) for they know they will be voted out or removed from office if their actions and/or withheld negative acts are anything but subtle. Such individuals thus seek positions of power (local, state and federal) where they can unobtrusively pass and enforce "laws" that serve their psychological "needs" -- rather than serving the public welfare. And if recent studies are any indicator, they are fearless in their predatory pursuit of these "needs."
Like the super rich, those that seek and serve in government are not like you and I. There is something different about a person that seeks power, an essence that sets them apart for good or for evil. Most citizens innately understand this, and fortunately most public officials are decent men and women trying to serve and improve society. But recent studies by criminologists into the activities and brain scans of serial killers have provided some alarming data. In almost all cases, serial killers and pathologically dangerous people exhibit abnormalities in the "limbic brain." This part of the brain is associated with emotion and motivation, but related to causality and the ability to feel remorse. Studies published in CRIME TIMES, report that psychopaths are less likely to experience the emotion of fear. "The psychopath's heart rate and skin temperature are low, and their 'startle reaction' was substantially less than the average person. The autonomic nervous system of intensely violent people is intensely sluggish. ... They need a higher level of thrill or stimulation in order to have an intense experience," says forensic psychologist Shawn Johnston.(3)
This means serial killers have an inhibited sense of their effects on society and they feel no remorse while committing horrendous acts or afterwards.
As if these new findings are not horrifying enough -- the idea that almost all of serial killers studied manifest certain brain anomalies -- there is a deeper dimension that is even more troubling. That dimension is the evidence discussed in Macleans' Magazine that suggests "experts estimate that about one per cent of the GENERAL population (emphasis added) consists of psychopaths, while roughly one-fifth of the inmates in the country's prisons falls into the category." The 61-year old world authority from the University of British Columbia, psychologist Robert Hare, has conducted studies that shed new light on pathological individuals and he reports in Maclean's: "We as a society are paying an enormously high cost because of this damaging disorder. We need to find out what makes these people tick in order to tackle the problem at its roots." Maclean's goes on to state: "According to Hare, 'many psychopaths find wealth and success as highly manipulative corporate careerists, as thugs on professional sports teams or as unscrupulous politicians.'(4)
In layman's terms, this means that 1% of the general population, including "politicians," is physiologically pre-disposed to psychopathic tendencies.
But before you get too alarmed, Dr. Hare also says that the disorder does not necessarily lead to violent criminal behavior. Criminologists underscore additional factors and conditions must be met before an individual pre-disposed to kill will carry out his or her deeds. Some of these factors and conditions are: environment, parental influence, temporal lobe damage, imprisonment, military training, societal and/or parental abuse, nutrition, medication, drug addiction, education, general intelligence and access to leverage (money, position, physique, connections). All of the above factors enter into the equation, some factors negating each other and others reinforcing the marginal propensity for the psychopathic personality to do damage, whether in private or public.
GIVEN THESE STUDIES -- THAT ABOUT 1% OF THE GENERAL POPULATION IS PREDISPOSED TO PSYCHOPATHIC BEHAVIOR -- IT IS INEVITABLE THAT SOME PERCENT OF SUCH PERSONALITIES ARE IN GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS. THUS, SHOULDN'T CITIZENS BE CONCERNED ABOUT WHO THEY ELECT INTO POSITIONS OF PUBLIC SERVICE, ESPECIALLY POSITIONS OF POWER AND AUTHORITY: WHETHER LEGISLATIVE, ENFORCEMENT OR JUDICIAL: WHETHER FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL?
Since a government official is generally in a position to do far more damage to a citizen than a citizen is able to do to a government official, shouldn't We the People require our public officials to prove they are not "governing under the influence" of any physiological or psychological malady before entrusting them with state power? As the above video shows, the police officer in question seems to have lost control over a 15-year old's flippant actions. Judging from the severe and unnecessary aggression of the officer, it is evident such violence is a result of some sort of mental aberration on the part of the local official. Perhaps this officer is one of the 1% discussed above and has a serious physiological condition. Perhaps he's one of the 1% of society that's psychopathic. On the other hand, maybe this officer just had a bad day. Maybe he has a 15-year old daughter who is flippant or abusive to him and he's built up a considerable amount of emotional "charge," and just releasing it on the 15-year old he has under his "protective" custody in order to "get even."
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