From Democracy to Pathocracy: The Rise of the Political Psychopath
Twenty years ago, a newspaper headline asked the question: "What's the difference between a politician and a psychopath?"- Tuesday, March 29, 2016
"I was astonished, bewildered. This was America, a country where, whatever its faults, people could speak, write, assemble, demonstrate without fear. It was in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. We were a democracy... But I knew it wasn't a dream; there was a painful lump on the side of my head...
"We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself."--Dietrich BonhoefferThe untimely death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has predictably created a political firestorm.
"Never has our future been more unpredictable, never have we depended so much on political forces that cannot be trusted to follow the rules of common sense and self-interest--forces that look like sheer insanity, if judged by the standards of other centuries." ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of TotalitarianismAdding yet another layer of farce to an already comical spectacle, the 2016 presidential election has been given its own reality show. Presented by Showtime, The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth will follow the various presidential candidates from now until Election Day.
"No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices."--Edward R. Murrow, broadcast journalistAmerica is in the midst of an epidemic of historic proportions.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."--Hermann Goering, German military commander and Hitler's designated successorFor those who remember when the first towers fell on 9/11, there is an unnerving feeling of déjà vu about the Paris attacks.
"When a population becomes distracted by trivia, when cultural life is redefined as a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public conversation becomes a form of baby talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk: culture-death is a clear possibility."--Author Neil PostmanCaught up in the spectacle of the forthcoming 2016 presidential elections, Americans (never very good when it comes to long-term memory) have not only largely forgotten last year's hullabaloo over militarized police, police shootings of unarmed citizens, asset forfeiture schemes, and government surveillance but are also generally foggy about everything that has happened since.