Crossroads: Why All The Public Violence?

1. Two Major Options To Choose From. Governments and countries often may come before a fork ('bifurcation') in the road at a juncture in history where only two main paths and trends are to be considered, i.e. between the Secular Humanist forces threatening to draw liberals down the vortex of fullblown pagan Leftism and the Conservative Right trying to restore Law & Order and revitalize, resuscitate time-tested Judeo-Christian values without coming across as dysfunctionally 'dictatorial' or classically ‘draconian’.

2. An Uncanny Resemblance. The rioting, looting, destruction, anarchy & arson we often see in public (e.g. the USA, South Africa and elsewhere) is observed with concern, as it resembles forces, behaviours and conduct so reminiscent of some of the symptoms of classical ‘psychopathy’. Wikipedia identifies three observable characteristics of ‘Psychopathy’ based on e.g. the Psychopathy Checklist and the PPI (Psychopathic Personality Inventory):

♦ BOLDNESS. “Low fear including stress-tolerance, toleration of unfamiliarrity and danger, and high self-confidence and social assertiveness. The PCL-R measures this relatively poorly and mainly through Facet 1 of Factor 1. Similar to PPI Fearless dominance. May correspond to differences in the amygdala and other neurological systems associated with fear.”

♦ DISINHIBITION. “Poor impulse control including problems with planning and foresight, lacking affect and urge control, demand for immediate gratification, and poor behavioral restraints. Similar to PCL-R Factor 2 and PPI Impulsive anti-sociality. May correspond to impairments in frontal lobe systems that are involved in such control.” 

♦ MEANNESS. “Lacking empathy and close attachments with others, disdain of close attachments, use of cruelty to gain empowerment, exploitative tendencies, defiance of authority, and destructive excitement seeking. The PCL-R in general is related to this but in particular some elements in Factor 1. Similar to PPI, but also includes elements of sub-scales in impulsive anti-sociality.” [Wikipedia, ‘Psychopathy’].

3. State Capture (RSA). In South Africa we have seen these traits amply demonstrated by:

- the 'Zupta-driven state capture for nine lost years' (and longer through Covid-19 lockdowns!) in government circles on a pandemic scale when a classical 'liberation movement' (ANC) tried in vain to install a legitimate government and initiate a democratic regime  founded on crony-deployment instead of on professionalism, and, in so doing, 'liberating' its citizens from the frying pan of apartheid straight into the fire of state capture ... the largest mugging if its taxpayers and the fiscus in the modern 370-year history of the country, not having learned that 'two wrongs never make a right';  

- the scandalous and devastating 'great VBS bank-heist' (an employee-driven 'inside job');

- the recently wholesale looting in some major metropolitian centres of the country when shops were looted and vandalised, infrastructure razed and collateral destroyed (and hundreds murdered) in broad daylight with police standing helplessly by, apparently under the duress of stupefied under-resourcement and/or political apathy, with incredulous international television audiences looking on amazed and dazed by the impertinence, with police allowing the looters all the leeway they needed for a great day of affirmative shopping to the laughable 'background music' of one prominent politicians' son request for those looters to "please loot responsibly!"    

A wise man has once said: 

   “And to man He said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom! And to depart from evil is understanding!” (Job28:28).

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