You do realize you just described the billionaires? We ARE talking about handouts here, aren't we?

I don't understand those who hate the public. The regular people are the ones the billionaires made all their money by exploiting and yet despise. But that's how it goes; the slaves are always despised. Then they rise up and kill everybody. Ye grande olde cycle.

-FL

False on every single count.

-FL

There's no such thing as a "healthy psychopath". There are just psychopaths which are better at hiding and which bleed their victims more discreetly. The psychopath will always endeavor to recreate an environment around itself which is "psychopath friendly". Where their lack of empathy is rewarded. This is where the whole "Competition" craze came from in the West, and why socialism has been villainized. That's how dangerous they are when left unidentified to breed among the rest of humanity; they manipulate to create hell on earth. They cannot do any differently, they cannot "Wish" to be human, everything out of their mouths, every action is an attack or a manipulation. That's ALL they are and all they ever will be capable of.

I'm not suggesting democracy. I'm suggesting a society where Psychopaths are all identified, labeled, contained or eliminated so that there are simply none around. None to corrupt politics or any other structure. There is no need for sharks in among the real humans.

I can't imagine why you would be angered by these ideas.

-FL

There's no such thing as a "healthy" Psychopath. Just those who hide better, and feed more discreetly upon their victims.

The society I am suggesting is the kind where ALL psychopaths are labeled, contained or eliminated altogether. We don't need sharks among real humans, and they certainly wouldn't be allowed to play in politics or anywhere else they would cause damage.

Sorry if that bothers you, though why would it, I wonder?

-FL

That's certainly the state of things as they currently stand. But education about psychopaths has never been undertaken.

Because psychopaths are essentially a more simple order of organism than people with properly functioning frontal lobes, they tend to follow the same patterns from one instance and individual to another. That is to say, the same identification, containment and offensive tactics seem to work.

The big trick is to network with others. Healthy communities naturally evict psychopathic types, but it IS a fight. Communities, like individuals, must choose to embrace dark or light energy consumption, (not nearly as esoteric as that sounds), -basically, communities which have lots of gossips and people who delight in the downfall and pain of others are going to have a much harder time protecting themselves than those which encourage and seek healthy behavior sets.

But above all, education about psychopaths and their nature is necessary.

-FL

I was thinking more along the lines of preventing them from holding ranking offices in the government and in any corporate body which is capable of affecting people's lives. If BP, for instance, had a screening process in place, then the Gulf disaster would not have happened.

That would be a good start.

I was reading an account of early native cultures. If there was a member of a tribe who exhibited tendencies which became a long-standing creepy and destructive problem, then three men might go out hunting and two would come back. And the tribe would breathe a collective sigh of relief.

The only problem I have with drowning psychopaths is that testing would have to be fool proof. It's important to remember that psychopaths have the same emotional capacity as a particularly noxious snake or shark.

-FL

5% is the spread for the world population, but it makes sense that they would breed and concentrate in environments which reward psychopathic behavior.

So. . , assuming this is an accurate sample of the population, then can we assume that 15% of the populace place possessions above people. (I place Data and Possessions in the same category; if you're willing to run into a burning building to save data, then clearly it has some hold on you; i.e., it's a possession.)

So. . . 15%

And that's the the people being honest. And reporting. I bet it's higher, but let's go with this data set. . .

That means if one of those people were in a row boat and could rescue either you or a Happy Meal from sinking forever into the North Atlantic depths, then about one in seven people would let you drown. I mean, they'd let a "loved" one drown ahead of the Happy Meal, so how do you think YOU would rate? That's how fucked up the world is today.

Because such people have no built-in difficulty with lying, manipulating or back-stabbing, then they will tend to succeed in systems which reward highly competitive practices. Thus those people will tend to hold the positions of power, both political and financial. And if they'd deliberately let you die for a logistical gain, then why not crash airliners into buildings to start a logistically beneficial war or two? Among any number of examples.

Just something to keep in mind. This isn't a game. Psychopaths rule the world. Maybe it's time to do something about it?

-FL

Seriously?

EVERY word in use was at one time an uncertain clump of noises groping awkwardly toward common usage. Why, even Shakespeare's...

Oh whatever. You fill in the rest.

-FL

Your word-fu is strong. I had to look up "diriculous".

Anyway, sensationalism, while a bit tabloid, is standard fare for Slashdot and should be expected by now. In any case, the point behind the alarm is perfectly valid, and the on-line forum, which is still a pretty new and amazing cultural phenomenon, offers all the power necessary for readers to discuss any given concerns and thus find balance and truth.

It's not ideal or entirely mature, but it's colorful and it doesn't actually get in the way. I kind of enjoy it. Like movie posters.

-FL

I find my problem is that while I am quite good at research and pattern recognition, I often get so involved in the process that I really do think I know what I'm talking about even during those times when my understanding is genuinely faulty. I can thank Slashdot and many other forums for pointing me in the right direction by asking hard questions and by pointing out flaws in my thinking. It works both ways of course, and more often than not, I find myself in a position of knowing more than the criticizing party, but this is by no means true all the time. In any case, whatever happens, any differential in data offers up for the taking the materials necessary to re-evaluate and build stronger knowledge structures. Once I started working on un-plugging my ego from the process, (hard to do and by no means a completed job!), the collection of clean knowledge sped up considerably.

-FL

Um. Define "Eating it up".

Your comment is still modded zero, and I was correcting you, albeit in a very gentle way. It appears that you're living in your own reality where you're the perpetual hero, I think.

And this time the news bite you 'regurgitated' is also a fail, just bigger than before. -That's the problem with missing certain parts of your brain. It's difficult to quantify and qualify ideas which real humans naturally comprehend. It's like having no fashion sense, but in the arena of social cognition.

-FL

Well said. However, I would add that there is a flip side to the equation.

The internet has ALSO allowed for information sharing which has until now been impossible at the rates, speed and depth currently available. There are channels of information and networked communication now instantly available which allow for a very high level of awareness for those seeking it. Citizen journalism is nothing to sneeze at, and being able to hash out subjects on forums like this one, having people call my bullshit and point me at truth has been invaluable to me. The web offers itself as a fantastic crucible if you want to use it that way. But I agree; the pull of mind-wasting entertainment on the Web IS ridiculously strong.

Though, personal choice in how the medium is used is important to consider. I don't know that people would be any different without it. In fact, in terms of strict biological/behavioral interference I'd put more blame on cell phones and WiFi devices than the content for numbing awareness and fuzzing people out; for making the poor choices easier to feel satisfied with.

The medium IS the message, a wise man once observed.

-FL

Who cares? It makes you sane.

I really don't think people are thinking this through. It's sort of revealing, actually, of how pinned-down, programmed and generally helpless people feel. When living in a tin-can on a ball of red sand sounds more bearable than interacting with the world down here, it really speaks volumes about what has been done to so many of us. Escapism requires something terrible to escape from.

-FL

Where's the fallacy?

He's just pointing out that the two governments are persecuting people for reasons which seem unfair to huge numbers of people on both sides of the planet. He even explained his reasoning, citing different cultural approaches to societal management. I don't think he was trying to mislead anybody.

That being said, I wouldn't want to live under Chinese law, (but then I don't want to live under our government either. The options are growing more thin by the month). But that's not the point.

The point is that this article was being presented with the intent to propagandize the public and ratchet up angry division between populations. It's a good idea to remind ourselves that our own side is just as full of shit before allowing our emotions to be manipulated.

Yes, the different populations of the planet have different behavior sets, but that doesn't mean we need to fight or even fail to get along with each other. Anybody selling war is a shit-head.

-FL

You're being very charitable here. I think it's far more likely that he'll pretend he was right all along and, as such, he doesn't need to put in the excruciating effort to change anything about himself or his methods.

As you pointed out, he's little better than his students. He just pulled up a bit of old work from an archive. That he feels justified in calling students cheaters for typing a couple of search parameters into Google is unrealistic.

By not generating a fresh exam, he's basically not doing his job.

-FL