I’ve talked here to you about sociopathy in our immediate lives, especially regarding the defendants in my lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Although I’ve offered a definition of this destructive psychopathology and have pointed out a few signs and symptoms, I’ve not attempted on Sidebar<\/strong> to apply the definition on a national scale, to define it as a political movement, except for a link I recently made between Republican Party politics and the behavior of the defendant Skush-O’Briens<\/a>.<\/p>\n When I consider such things, my intellect has been drowned out by my emotions. And it is very difficult for me, at least, to corral such anger into lucid, persuasive writing.<\/p>\n But I’ve been thinking about it a lot. So I am greatly relieved that a legal scholar and professor named Neil Buchanan has published a profound essay<\/a> about how the G.O.P. has been taken over by sociopathy\u00a0\u2014 to such an extent that a dangerous pathology<\/em> has become a virtual, if utterly warped, party philosophy<\/em>. (It’s been my thought for years that so-called “libertarianism” is nothing more than naked sociopathy in facile Halloween costume, David Koch flinging an old bedsheet over his head and conning people into believing he’s a genuine ghost. I’d love to see him try that in my neighborhood, for the Greenwich Village Halloween parade.)<\/p>\n In his excellent, clear analysis, which reaches the conclusion that the 2012 GOP ticket “is the perfect distillation of this sociopathic phenomenon,” Mr. Buchanan brings into his argument the outrageous, vile pronouncements of creatures such as Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, and he does it calmly and with sublime rationality. (Which, as you can easily see from my use of “vile” and “creatures,” I am not capable of doing.)<\/p>\n I’m so grateful to Mr. Buchanan I am nearly in tears. It is of monumental importance for us to comprehend what sociopathy is, and how it affects us personally, individually and politically, and he gracefully, grandly has handed all of us this comprehension.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve talked here to you about sociopathy in our immediate lives, especially regarding the defendants in my lawsuit. Although I’ve offered a definition of this destructive psychopathology and have pointed out a few signs and symptoms, I’ve not attempted on … Continue reading