Ferme le port! C’est incroyable! Even les Anglais perfides have to laugh at that one! I’ve never heard of these people before, (we live sheltered lives here Down South.) But, oh, the production values, and in such a good cause. I hope Rupert fumes and gnashes his teeth when he hears what wonderful talents he can’t co-opt. Thanks maam. I’m going back now to give a listen to their other stuff.
beaune
Genial! Luv it! A breath of fresh air and a nice change from the tabloids in the streets of New York.
Yes, that was hilarious BUT Naked Capitalism was there first!!! See May 15, 2011 comments at 3:04 PM for another “Dominique” by a certain enterprising Girl Reporter:
I think the following excerpt from Martha Stout, who has worked extensively with victims of psychopaths, is germane, because it explains that for those who are without a conscience it is just one small step from property crime to violent crime:
Imagine—-if you can—-not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.
And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.
You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.
In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.
How will you live your life?
What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)?
The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people—-whether they have a conscience or not—-favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhat in between. There are violent people and non-violent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites….
Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all…
[….]
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know noting about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy—-murderers, serial killers, mass murderers—-people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system.
We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one’s boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish.
Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person.
Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender.
What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron—-or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer—-is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity.
What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions.
▬Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door
Mary
Great Parody!
On a more serious note, there is MRI evidence that psycopaths and sociopaths brains are different – a shorter, direct non obstructive space between impulse and reason, and empathy, etc. It may not have been a defect of character, but a defect of biology that made him bolder, more assertive, less evaluative and ultimately, more criminal. In the big picture, those traits may have worked in his favor, but in human interaction, not so much.
my main problem with this ‘biological determinism’ is that it was exactly what allowed the Eugenics movement to have such sway over ‘civilized’ nations in the early 20th century. it is fascinating to play around with MRI but where does it all lead? lock people up who have bad MRIs? treat them differently in justice systems? as i said thats exactly what Eugenics wanted to do. it acheived it’s apex in nazi germany, where the ‘unfit’ (depressed, out of work for too long, etc) were sterilized and/or murdered, to improve the ‘health’ of ‘society’. . . literally “racial hygenie”.
my other problem is that psychopathy is not a prerequisite for mass murder or other crime. there are numerous stories of Heinrich Himmler having to convince himself that the mass slaughter of Jews was justified, first because it was the orders of his superior, second because of various bizarre racist theories he had about a Jewish conspiracy and so forth and so on. He claimed the baghavad gita helped him overcome his natural feelings of disgust or hesitation. I.e. he was probably not a true blue psychopath; and yet he ran the mass murder machine for over a decade.
Do you really believe that sociopaths are born as such?
Indeed, it seems like people at the very least can emulate sociopath behavior when they have sufficiently numbed their empathy. In fact the way people treat each other can often encourage numbing. We’re so busy, so ready to compromise our humanity, so forgetful of where we came from, that it may just be the case that sociopathy is a learned behavior.
This man… In his position… I can see the causation running either way.
spc
IMD’d hehe…
How about:
IMF you !
IMF off !
Do not IMF with me …
Are you IMFing kidding ??!!
We’re IMF’d !!!
Go IMF yourself…
Oh! IMF.
Get the IMF out of here !!
Will it catch on ??
another
“Will it catch on ??”
Well, IMF’d if I know.
Valissa
Thanks for posting this Yves! It’s charmingly corny, geeky and satirical.
ambrit
Fiends;
I’m amazed that no-one has thought of the French political implications. This is going to be another production of “The Singing Non.” See you at the barricades!
This is a powerful argument for limiting the amount of power any one individual can acquire using anti-trust and tax policy and establishing a system of checks and balances.I suspect many sociopaths raise to the top of power structures using the advantage described. I worked many years for GE and thought at the time that Jack Welsh was a sociopath but that is just one man’s opinion.
Jim
Leslie Garrtee
The last word in the song is new, which is hardly appropriate. If the last word in the song were another word that rhymes with “new” the lyrics probably would have been more to the point, but perhaps they are saving that for the song about the money changer who replaced him as acting chief after the fall or the one to come. The song could have a rousing last chorus in which most of the bankers, the regulators, the legislators, the newspaper owners, and those who own the entire digital world are mentioned in a long list of those responsible for this mess and the other great recessions that Europe has known.
Ferme le port! C’est incroyable! Even les Anglais perfides have to laugh at that one! I’ve never heard of these people before, (we live sheltered lives here Down South.) But, oh, the production values, and in such a good cause. I hope Rupert fumes and gnashes his teeth when he hears what wonderful talents he can’t co-opt. Thanks maam. I’m going back now to give a listen to their other stuff.
Genial! Luv it! A breath of fresh air and a nice change from the tabloids in the streets of New York.
Yes, that was hilarious BUT Naked Capitalism was there first!!! See May 15, 2011 comments at 3:04 PM for another “Dominique” by a certain enterprising Girl Reporter:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/05/imf-chief-strauss-kahn-arrested-for-alleged-sexual-assault.html
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I think the following excerpt from Martha Stout, who has worked extensively with victims of psychopaths, is germane, because it explains that for those who are without a conscience it is just one small step from property crime to violent crime:
Imagine—-if you can—-not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.
And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.
You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.
In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.
How will you live your life?
What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people (conscience)?
The answer will depend largely on just what your desires happen to be, because people are not all the same. Even the profoundly unscrupulous are not all the same. Some people—-whether they have a conscience or not—-favor the ease of inertia, while others are filled with dreams and wild ambitions. Some human beings are brilliant and talented, some are dull-witted, and most, conscience or not, are somewhat in between. There are violent people and non-violent ones, individuals who are motivated by blood lust and those who have no such appetites….
Provided you are not forcibly stopped, you can do anything at all…
[….]
The high incidence of sociopathy in human society has a profound effect on the rest of us who must live on this planet, too, even those of us who have not been clinically traumatized. The individuals who constitute this 4 percent drain our relationships, our bank accounts, our accomplishments, our self-esteem, our very peace on earth.
Yet surprisingly, many people know noting about this disorder, or if they do, they think only in terms of violent psychopathy—-murderers, serial killers, mass murderers—-people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system.
We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.
Most of us would not imagine any correspondence between conceiving an ethnic genocide and, say, guiltlessly lying to one’s boss about a coworker. But the psychological correspondence is not only there; it is chilling. Simple and profound, the link is the absence of the inner mechanism that beats up on us, emotionally speaking, when we make a choice we view as immoral, unethical, neglectful, or selfish.
Most of us feel mildly guilty if we eat the last piece of cake in the kitchen let alone what we would feel if we intentionally and methodically set about to hurt another person.
Those who have no conscience at all are a group unto themselves, whether they be homicidal tyrants or merely ruthless social snipers.
The presence or absence of conscience is a deep human division, arguably more significant than intelligence, race, or even gender.
What differentiates a sociopath who lives off the labors of others from one who occasionally robs convenience stores, or from one who is a contemporary robber baron—-or what makes the difference between an ordinary bully and a sociopathic murderer—-is nothing more than social status, drive, intellect, blood lust, or simple opportunity.
What distinguishes all of these people from the rest of us is an utterly empty hole in the psyche, where there should be the most evolved of all humanizing functions.
▬Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door
Great Parody!
On a more serious note, there is MRI evidence that psycopaths and sociopaths brains are different – a shorter, direct non obstructive space between impulse and reason, and empathy, etc. It may not have been a defect of character, but a defect of biology that made him bolder, more assertive, less evaluative and ultimately, more criminal. In the big picture, those traits may have worked in his favor, but in human interaction, not so much.
http://blogs.psychcentral.com/forensic-focus/2010/03/the-brain-of-a-psychopath-using-fmri-technology-to-detect-brain-abnormalities-part-i/
my main problem with this ‘biological determinism’ is that it was exactly what allowed the Eugenics movement to have such sway over ‘civilized’ nations in the early 20th century. it is fascinating to play around with MRI but where does it all lead? lock people up who have bad MRIs? treat them differently in justice systems? as i said thats exactly what Eugenics wanted to do. it acheived it’s apex in nazi germany, where the ‘unfit’ (depressed, out of work for too long, etc) were sterilized and/or murdered, to improve the ‘health’ of ‘society’. . . literally “racial hygenie”.
my other problem is that psychopathy is not a prerequisite for mass murder or other crime. there are numerous stories of Heinrich Himmler having to convince himself that the mass slaughter of Jews was justified, first because it was the orders of his superior, second because of various bizarre racist theories he had about a Jewish conspiracy and so forth and so on. He claimed the baghavad gita helped him overcome his natural feelings of disgust or hesitation. I.e. he was probably not a true blue psychopath; and yet he ran the mass murder machine for over a decade.
You might want to read about “Ponerology”,this wiki link is a good start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponerology
Do you really believe that sociopaths are born as such?
Indeed, it seems like people at the very least can emulate sociopath behavior when they have sufficiently numbed their empathy. In fact the way people treat each other can often encourage numbing. We’re so busy, so ready to compromise our humanity, so forgetful of where we came from, that it may just be the case that sociopathy is a learned behavior.
This man… In his position… I can see the causation running either way.
IMD’d hehe…
How about:
IMF you !
IMF off !
Do not IMF with me …
Are you IMFing kidding ??!!
We’re IMF’d !!!
Go IMF yourself…
Oh! IMF.
Get the IMF out of here !!
Will it catch on ??
“Will it catch on ??”
Well, IMF’d if I know.
Thanks for posting this Yves! It’s charmingly corny, geeky and satirical.
Fiends;
I’m amazed that no-one has thought of the French political implications. This is going to be another production of “The Singing Non.” See you at the barricades!
Nice parody. My favorite IMF song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68zccrskOqQ
This is a powerful argument for limiting the amount of power any one individual can acquire using anti-trust and tax policy and establishing a system of checks and balances.I suspect many sociopaths raise to the top of power structures using the advantage described. I worked many years for GE and thought at the time that Jack Welsh was a sociopath but that is just one man’s opinion.
Jim
The last word in the song is new, which is hardly appropriate. If the last word in the song were another word that rhymes with “new” the lyrics probably would have been more to the point, but perhaps they are saving that for the song about the money changer who replaced him as acting chief after the fall or the one to come. The song could have a rousing last chorus in which most of the bankers, the regulators, the legislators, the newspaper owners, and those who own the entire digital world are mentioned in a long list of those responsible for this mess and the other great recessions that Europe has known.
Interested in nudist dating, make nudist friends / hang out naked? check out truenudist.net
Check back once Dominique is off house arrest.
…actually, Leslie, the last word in the song is clearly “YOU” not “NEW”. You may have listened to a corrupted soundtrack.