My personal favorite wordsmith is Jesse.
He reminds us that many of those in power, in business and politics, are narcissistic sociopaths. Anyone who has lived any number of years and attempted to creatively engage with the world has encountered them.
But today's turn of phrase is breathtaking:
Was my characterization of the big Wall Street banks as 'sociopathic' a bit harsh as a reader asked?
No, more likely understated. Remember, this is not some small local lender facing a loss and trying to get something out of it for their trouble. These are the TARP-sucking, discount window-feeding, bonus paying, fraudulent flim-flam 29.9% interest-charging pigmen who are demanding a pound of flesh from the down and out and the dispossessed as a consequence of their own reckless lending practices.
Change you can believe in.
No, more likely understated. Remember, this is not some small local lender facing a loss and trying to get something out of it for their trouble. These are the TARP-sucking, discount window-feeding, bonus paying, fraudulent flim-flam 29.9% interest-charging pigmen who are demanding a pound of flesh from the down and out and the dispossessed as a consequence of their own reckless lending practices.
Change you can believe in.
OldSouth hopes you visit Jesse regularly. He's a voice of moral reason in a confusing time.
3 comments:
Many (but not all) sociopaths are attracted to positions of power. I was talking about this with a forensice psychiatrist recently, mainly because I was attempting to figure out the difference between sociopathy and malign narcissism.
In general, we both agreed, official psychiatric diagnoses are hemmed in on all sides by p.c., by groups like Man-Boy Love which lobby the editors of the official DSM to have degraded, immoral and harmful obsessions (and the acting out of same) stamped as 'within normal limits' when it definitely is an evil aberration.
But definitely the corridors of power -- academe, journalism, politics, etc., -- are filled with more than their share of sociopaths.
Hume said that a good culture must have both public justice and benevolence. Those virtues have almost disappeared.
Oh, I forgot to give you the link to a New York post editorial complaint about Obama's hatred of New York. It would be funny if it weren't so true.
NY Gave Bam Our Love But He Despises Us
Be sure to click on to second page of that essay. Very funny story about a sociopathic comptroller. Well, it's funny if you're not one of his employees...
Ooh, that nugget re the comptroller is choice!
Been there, done that, glad to not be there anymore.
Thanks for looking in, and for the good work you do.
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