This IS the World a Cruel, Sociopathic Minority Wants

Yesterday I read a brilliant essay by Umair Haque about his ultimate ‘failure’: his inability to meaningfully shift humanity’s path and stem the tide of senseless destruction.

Of course, this is the nasty, universal quandary faced by all outspoken Cassandras throughout human history.

But knowing that doesn’t make it any easier to bear.

…

After reading his essay, I immediately wrote a response that I want to include here — as a jumping-off point for an in-depth discussion of civilizational collapse and our collective ‘failure.’ Here it is:

“Well, damn! You totally nailed the inner pain and frustration so many of us ‘prescient’ Cassandra types feel these days … [and] you’re right, all our warning and analyzing and frantic alarm bells aren’t having much, if ANY, effect.

Meanwhile, the global juggernaut of insane abuse of power — and of other people — keeps steamrolling over everything, and crushing our humanness and our living planet. It’s a horrendous spectacle — yet here we are, stuck IN it … and unable to do much of anything to stop or even slow it down. “Where to, from here?” is a very good question.”

It hurt just to write that.

A short history of our (brief) human progress

A couple of issues stand out to me in Umair’s article: one, his/our deep longing for and commitment to human progress and ‘awakening,’ and two, the deep pain and grief that comes from watching and feeling the horrendous s-l-o-w-n-e-s-s of progress and the whole ‘awakening’ process.

Sometimes — like today — it even seems like everything has shifted into reverse, and we’re actually going backwards.

Let’s briefly examine my above statement: “the global juggernaut of insane abuse of power — and of other people — keeps steamrolling over everything, and crushing our humanness and our living planet.” This frightening observation is exactly ‘in sync’ with what Umair said about human power structures, and the fact that those in power hate change — and do NOT want to surrender, share, or even modify any of their power.

The above observations — mine and Umair’s — are also ‘in sync’ with the title I chose for this article: “This IS the World a Cruel, Sociopathic Minority Wants.” To me, this may be the crux of the issues and dilemmas we face.

And in a way, it’s totally obvious — I mean, when we look back over all of human history, the predominant feature is probably the ongoing oppression or abuse of the many, and of the Earth herself, by the ruthless few.

Human history is replete with endless wars, conquests, genocide, and oppression — and only recently (meaning over the past 250 years) have there been any real, concerted efforts to turn this pattern around.

And for a while, especially after WW II and up to the early 2000s, it seemed like the world was finally starting to get its act together — and a more democratic and fair civilization was ‘in development’ and rising, like the phoenix from the ashes. (Remember the heady days surrounding the collapse of the U.S.S.R., circa 1990, and its apparent movement toward democracy and ‘freedom’?)

It indeed seemed that way.

Then our ‘progress’ … started to collapse

Then — fairly suddenly, by historical standards — our entire ‘modern enterprise’ and modern civilization itself started to rapidly implode and collapse. Why? What the hell happened?

Well, I think the period from 1945–2000 or so was a historical aberration, a fluke brought on by various post-Depression and post-war circumstances and decisions (like the Marshall Plan, FDR’s ‘New Deal,’ and the Voting Rights Act).

For a while, the whole world seemed (there’s that word again) to be moving steadily and rapidly toward greater democracy, fairness, and global cooperation.

Then we all experienced 9/11, the ‘War on Terror,’ and the Great Recession of 2007–2009, which were followed in rapid succession by rising fascism, the rise of Donald Trump and MAGA, the global pandemic of 2020–2022, and the Russian war against Ukraine — and now Israel’s war against Hamas and Gaza.

And this year, most of the world’s ‘democratic’ societies and governments are holding elections, and the fate of democracy itself hangs in the balance, all around the world.

The last 15 years or so have produced a veritable ‘shit-storm’ in human affairs, all across the planet.

‘Shit-storm’ or ‘peace’ — either way, the ruling sociopathic minority maintains its iron grip

Yet in the midst of this ‘shit-storm,’ and also during the entire post-war period of relative sanity and ‘progress,’ there was/is one huge factor that never really changed, and never budged or wavered: the iron grip of the tiny minority of ruthless sociopaths who, for all intents and purposes, rule our world.

I’m reminded of an old truism about capitalism: in times of peace, capitalists make ‘easy money’ hand over fist … and in times of war, capitalists also make easy money hand over fist. To a dedicated capitalist/sociopath, war and peace are basically equal: neither is ‘better,’ since they’re both excellent for milking (bilking?) society and making lots of money!

…

For a brief period, our sociopathic ‘ruling elite’ apparently tolerated greater democracy and increasing social and economic fairness — but then they’d had enough, and the Great Clampdown began, starting around 2010.

Suddenly, all aspects of modern ‘progress’ began to be challenged, undermined, and often reversed — and now we’re seeing this process intensifying and accelerating, all over the world (and especially in the U.S.).

And the often-disguised dominance of the sociopaths is now right out in the open, and totally obvious. Donald Trump is a big-time sociopath. Putin is a dangerous sociopath. Israel’s war-mongering Netanyahu is a sociopath.

Terrorist groups like Hamas are sociopathic. Most of the world’s billionaires and super-capitalists are greedy sociopaths. Most so-called ‘leaders’ are either sociopaths, or sociopaths-in-training.

Yes, the undisguised, naked rule of the sociopaths is suddenly right in our faces. And as their horrid ‘Great Clampdown’ continues and spreads … who wins, and who loses?

What traits define a sociopath?

Of course, the big winners — by design — are the ruthless sociopaths who effectively rule our world … and the big losers are ordinary citizens, ‘everyday people,’ and our societies in general — as well as our planet.

These sociopathic ‘winners’ don’t care about the things and values the rest of us care about — and they don’t want the crucial ‘social goods’ and shared benefits that the rest of us want and need from our societies and governments.

No, the defining feature of sociopaths is their utter indifference to ‘normal’ human feelings or needs, including compassion, love, caring, and sharing.

That’s exactly what makes them sociopaths. They are utterly ruthless precisely because they have NO morals, no compassion, and NO desire to ‘share the wealth’ or improve other peoples’ lot in life.

Weirdly (to ‘normal’ people, anyway), sociopaths are SO self-centered that they literally couldn’t care less about what happens to other people, or to society, or to their country. In fact, it’s not a stretch to say that sociopaths have no society, or country, or loyalty. Their ‘loyalties’ lie only with themselves, and their own profit, status, and power.

Their ugly sociopathic ‘fingerprints’ are on almost everything

Thus, with these sociopathic types in control and always lurking in the background, our brief, feeble attempts at ‘human progress’ were doomed to failure.

There’s no easier, ‘nicer’ way to put it.

We can see their ugly, sociopathic fingerprints on almost everything in today’s modern ‘civilization’: the rapid rise of the ‘billionaire class’; the dominance of the military-industrial-media complex; the massive oil-industry propaganda campaign that undermined the proven science warning us about global warming; our civilization’s dismal failure to adapt to and quickly start to reverse CO2 build-up and climate change; and not coincidentally, the rapid rise of fascism and fascist-friendly social memes, groups, and politicians.

The horrifying truth is that these ruthless capitalists, fascists, and other pathological manipulators have always been in the driver’s seat, and have always been endlessly creative at finding ways to keep and augment their control.

As Umair H. sadly observed, these folks live for power, and are not about to give any of it up or ‘nicely’ share their power or wealth.

The near-constant failures of visionaries and progressives

Thus, we circle back now to progressive or ‘prescient’ folks’ ultimate quandary: Given our almost-constant ‘failures,’ how can we keep doing what we do, and seeing what we see, without going mad or collapsing into total despair?

How can we maintain any optimism at all, or any ‘faith in humanity’?

And these questions, in turn, lead to another crucial question: if these ruthless sociopaths are in fact a truly tiny minority, HOW do they maintain their control? Just how can they keep the vast majority ‘in line’ and prevent them from rising up and doing away with them, like the French did with the wealthy aristocracy during the French Revolution — literally ‘off with their heads!’?

As far as I can tell, this ruthless minority only gets away with all their scams, manipulations, and devious doings because they deliberately keep the vast majority of people ignorant, unaware, and hateful — with their anxiety and hatred always (mis)directed at other religions, ethnic groups, or ‘inferior’ races, and never at their true oppressors and overlords: the cruel, sociopathic minority.

These ruthless overlords use the media, the Internet, our education systems, and our news organizations to push their preferred (twisted) narratives, keep us distracted, and also keep us at each other’s throats.

In a nutshell, their entire modus operandi boils down to ‘Hey, look over here, now look over there — but whatever you do, don’t you dare look right at US and what we’re doing!’ And the sad, deeply horrifying thing is: it works.

All the subterfuge, misdirection, and disinformation work really, really well — to the point that most people accept all this intentional, manipulative BS as ‘reality.’

Humanity supports and enables its own enslavement

From that point, we all — the vast majority of humanity — become prisoners, enablers, and willing co-conspirators of the interlinked worldwide ‘sociopathic system(s).’

We unconsciously end up believing in, supporting, and defending the very systems that enslave, oppress, and keep us down.

And to my mind, that is what humanity is really up against. The main problem is US, our unconsciousness, and our willingness to stay unconscious and asleep.

The ultimate problem we face is that the vast majority of humanity is somehow OK with being controlled, misdirected, and oppressed — as long as we can maintain a certain, moderate level of ‘comfort’ and ‘safety.’

…

For the most part, we’re willing slaves, bound to our little fleeting pleasures and ‘creature comforts.’

So, this being the case, in a sense we ‘doomsayers,’ visionaries, and Cassandras are all trapped in illusion and ‘hope.’ We’re laboring under multiple prolonged delusions about human progress and our entire human ‘experiment.’

We can shout, yell, and scream our revelations and ‘cosmic truths’ from the rooftops — forever and ever, amen — but until more of humanity chooses to wake up, grow up, throw off our oppressors, and work together to create a truly equitable, progressive civilization … well, almost all our noble efforts will be in vain. (And our continued belief in our ability to effect change is likewise pure vanity and delusion.)

That is the simple, unvarnished truth of our ‘human situation.’

And now — what can we ‘do’ with that painful awareness and that knowledge? IS there anything to ‘do’ with it?

WE haven’t failed — but humanity as a whole has failed

Perhaps the only thing left to do, really, is to accept all this, and somehow finally embrace the sad truth about humanity.

Perhaps then — IF we can truly, deeply accept our current human reality — we can find new, unattached ways to promote healing, growth, and true freedom.

But being truly, fully ‘unattached’ is an implausible, daunting task — plus, we will probably always be in the minority, and the way forward will always be challenging and difficult.

Umair, my courageous truth-telling friend, to you — and to all the other progressives, teachers, and ‘way-showers’ as well — I say: WE are not failing.

We are reaching out and doing our job, to the best of our abilities. We are learning, growing, and communicating.

We are working hard to educate, inspire, enlighten, and lift up humanity.

We are not failing — not at all.

The problem, unfortunately, is that humanity as a whole is falling down on the job and failing — miserably.

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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From The Good Men Project on Medium

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