In its pure, unregulated sense and form, capitalism is the creed and practice of psychopaths, nothing more than a vehicle for the uninhibited expression of psychopathological freedom. Capitalists, once called “captains of industry,” and more recently known as “masters of the universe” due to malignant effects of their outsized egos on the global population at large, often pretend to adhere to some marginally plausible ethos purely for public relations value, e.g., “bringing cheap energy to market,” or “creating market efficiencies,” to mask and continue their depredations unmolested by the indignant outcries of normal people, in the end, the psychopath simply takes what he wants without any standard feeling of remorse for horrific outcomes.
Sociopaths are “outstanding” members of society in two senses: politically, they command attention because of the inordinate amount of crime they commit, and psychologically, they elicit fascination because most of us cannot fathom the cold, detached way they repeatedly harm and manipulate others.
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THE SOCIOBIOLOGY OF SOCIOPATHY: AN INTEGRATED…
Whether criminal or not, sociopaths typically exhibit what is generally considered to be irresponsible and unreliable behavior; their attributes include egocentrism, an inability to form lasting personal commitments and a marked degree of impulsivity. Underlying a superficial veneer of sociability and charm, sociopaths are characterized by a deficit of the social emotions (love, shame, guilt, empathy, and remorse). On the other hand, they are not intellectually handicapped, and are often able to deceive and manipulate others through elaborate scams and ruses including fraud, bigamy, embezzlement, and other crimes which rely on the trust and cooperation of others. The sociopath is “aware of the discrepancy between his behavior and societal expectations, but he seems to be neither guided by the possibility of such a discrepancy, nor disturbed by its occurrence” (Widom 1976a, p 614). This cold- hearted and selfish approach to human interaction at one time garnered for sociopathy the moniker “moral insanity” (McCord 1983, Davison & Neale
1990).
What makes capitalism an ideal vehicle for the expression of psychopathology is its inclination toward pure profit regardless of external costs, hence its hypertrophic emphasis on unregulated, laissez faire, “let do” behavior.
Insofar as psychopaths and their creed of unfettered capitalism have infested and subverted the very government both regulating them and giving them license to operate, the United States has turned into what some have called a “pathocracy,” the rule of, by, and for the morally insane.
Sociologist