Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths- And How We Can Stop!
Page 6
in this February 1932 election.
In the November election later that year, the Nazis lost votes to become
only 35 percent of the parliament, but because they were still the larg-
est party, Hitler was appointed Chancellor in January 1933.43 If the other
parties could have recognized Hitler’s Wannabe King patterns, instead of
being focused on their long history of squabbling, they might have worked
together and prevented World War II and the genocidal holocaust of the
Jews and Hitler’s other Targets of Blame.
Stalin’s Example
In the 1930s, Stalin wanted to make the farms of the Soviet Union into large
collectives so they would be more efficient at producing more grain to sell
for industrial equipment.44 At the same time, doing this would help the gov-
ernment stamp out any capitalist tendencies farmers might have developed
by owning their own small farms ever since the Russian tsar gave the peas-
ants their freedom in 1861.45
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 31
3/1/19 1:59 PM
32 Part I: How Narcissists and Sociopaths Get Elected
Stalin saw these resistant land- owning peasant farmers as his Targets of
Blame. He called them kulaks— a rare term from before the revolution that
“simply implied someone who was doing well, or someone who could afford
to hire others to work, but not necessarily someone wealthy. ”46
[One Soviet leader said:] “If the requisition meant civil war between the
kulaks and the poorer elements of the villages, then long live this civil
war!” . . . [T]he Bolsheviks were actively seeking to deepen divisions inside
the villages, to use anger and resentment to further their policy.47
In one mandatory meeting with peasant farmers, a young revolutionary
brigade “propagandist” from the city urged the peasants to sign up for the
collective farm:
“Come on! It’s late,” he urged us. “The sooner you sign in, the sooner you
go home.” No one moved. All sat silently. The chairman, bewildered and
nervous, whispered something in the propagandist’s ear . . . We kept our
silence. This irritated the officials, especially the chairman. A moment
after the propagandist finished his admonishment, the chairman rushed
from behind the table, grabbed the first man before him, and shook him
hard. “You . . . you, enemy of the people!” he shouted, his voice choking
with rage. “What are you waiting for?”48
I picture these peasants—caught in the middle between angry Loyal-
ists and angry Resisters—as the Moderates, who didn’t really cooperate but
didn’t really fight back either. These divisions enabled Stalin to divide and
conquer by using Loyalists (including the urban revolutionaries and some
local villagers) to do much of the dirty work, including forcibly taking food
and equipment from farm families without leaving them anything to eat. It
was these actions that caused the famines, which led to the deaths of mil-
lions by 1933.49 Yet, there were always more peasant Resisters and Moder-
ates (and Dropouts who left for the big cities) than Loyalists.
Emotions Are Contagious
How could these HCP Wannabe Kings be so successful at gaining followers
and intimidating their critics in a century with such rapid development of
information, communication, and logical problem- solving? It’s simple. They
are more effective than anyone else at using emotional communication and
emotional relationships. These techniques are totally automatic for Wan-
nabe Kings.
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 32
3/1/19 1:59 PM
3: The 4-Way Voter Split 33
After all, emotions are contagious. And “high” emotions—fear, panic,
jealousy, resentment, anger, rage—are highly contagious. Mild emotions
are, of course, part of everyday life and they help us make decisions, get
along with others, and build meaningful relationships. But when emotions
run high, they get our hearts racing, our minds focused narrowly, and our
muscles ready to fight, flee, or freeze. They also shut off the logical, problem-
solving part of our brains so fast that we don’t even realize it.
Brain researchers tell us that we can “catch” each other’s emotions, espe-
cially when we are anxious. There are two parts of the brain in particular
that play a big part in this. One is the amygdala:
[T]he amygdala spots signs of fear in someone else’s face with remark-
able speed, picking it up in a glimpse as quick as 33 milliseconds, and in
some people even in a mere 17 milliseconds…so fast that the conscious
mind remains oblivious to that perception (though we might sense the
resulting vague stirring of uneasiness). We may not consciously realize
how we are synchronizing [with the other person], yet we mesh with
remarkable ease.50
The other part is mirror neurons, which causes us to exhibit or rehearse
in our brains and bodies the same behavior that we have seen in someone
else, without even consciously thinking about it. They say that this is the
primary way that children learn, as well as the reason adults can quickly join
together in group action.
[T]hese systems “allow us to grasp the minds of others not through
conceptual reasoning but through direct simulation; by feeling, not by
thinking.”
This triggering of parallel circuitry in two brains lets us instantly achieve a
shared sense of what counts in a given moment.51 (Emphasis added)
In addition, brain research tells us that in the absence of a clear under-
standing of who is in power in a given situation, the person with the most
emotionally expressive face usually commands the attention of the group.52
Overall, it appears that our brains follow emotionally expressive leaders, just
as we fall in love with emotionally expressive romantic partners. And in both
situations, our emotional attractions operate outside of our conscious radar.
We simply fall in love.
Narcissists and sociopaths intuitively know this and seduce people all the
time. Groups follow them because they are emotionally expressive. But they
don’t actually care about their followers. It is only later that individuals and
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 33
3/1/19 1:59 PM
34 Part I: How Narcissists and Sociopaths Get Elected
groups discover that they have been manipulated and misled. At that point,
they are often too ashamed to admit it and may deny they have been misled.
For example, one of Stalin’s young revolutionaries later expressed deep
regrets when he realized how he had been misled by Stalin and his cohorts
to contribute to the starvation of thousands of peasants when they tried to
force collective farming on them. He described himself as succumbing “to a
form of intellectual blindness” at the time.
“To spare yourself mental agony you veil unpleasant truths from view by
half- closing your eyes—and your mind. You make panicky excuses and
shrug off knowledge with words like exaggeration and hysteria. . . . We
spoke of the ‘peasant front’ and ‘kulak menace,’ ‘village socialism’ and
‘class resistance.’ In order to li
ve with ourselves we had to smear the reality
out of recognition with verbal camouflage. ”53
This emotional contagion can and does happen to everyone. We are actu-
ally all seduced into becoming emotional, although in different ways: some
of us fight, some flee, some freeze, and some follow. The lesson to be learned here is that we need to watch out for this occurring and work together, rather
than simply accept the emotional messages of those leaders who seem to be
on “our side” when they say that it is a case of “us against them.”
Emotional Differences
It’s also important to understand that people in different political groups
may have a predisposition to think more one way than another. Part of what
allows us as voters to be split and to argue with each other is the assumption
that when people disagree with us they are stupid or evil. However, it turns
out that our individual brains may be predisposed to see things differently—
perhaps from birth.54
For example, some people seem to be born with the tendency to value
loyalty highly, follow authority, have empathy for one’s own group, be suspi-
cious of strangers, and seek certainty and stability. These people are generally
more conservative. Others seem to be born to seek novelty and change, to be
interested in people who look different, and to have empathy for strangers in
need. They are generally more liberal. 55
These conservative- liberal personality differences seem to exist even
outside of politics. For example, Republicans apparently have three times
as many nightmares as Democrats.56 And liberals “are more likely to own
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 34
3/1/19 1:59 PM
3: The 4-Way Voter Split 35
travel books than conservatives. ”57 Studies have shown that as early as four
years old, children have already begun to show these differing personality
tendencies.58
Three political science researchers have been studying the biology and
psychology of political orientations. They believe that a lot of our behavioral
tendencies may be inborn, including some liberal and conservative person-
ality traits. They found that what you gaze at, what disgusts you, and who
attracts you as a mate are among the many traits that correspond somewhat
with political tendencies. “Slices of the population on both the political left
and the political right are predisposed, and therefore for all intents and pur-
poses unpersuadable. ”59
Others agree that whether our political personalities developed primar-
ily from genetics, early childhood upbringing, or cultural experience, they
appear mostly set by adulthood.
[Most] people either inherit their party affiliations from their parents, or
they form an attachment to one party or another early in adulthood. Few
people switch parties once they hit middle age. . . . Once they have formed
an affiliation, people bend their philosophy and their perceptions of reality so
they become more and more aligned with members of their political tribe.60
However, much of the time, people with these differing political tenden-
cies get along just fine. It’s when a Wannabe King enters the picture and
repeatedly exaggerates these differences, purposefully dividing people, that
it can become a serious problem. What’s one of the most powerful tools they
have for dividing people?
Fear Factor
Fear appears to be the strongest emotion that drives this split among voters.
“Brain imaging studies have even shown that the fear center of the brain, the
amygdala, is actually larger in conservatives than in liberals. ”61 It is commonly said that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged. And it is true that
a liberal will temporarily become more conservative when “tired, hungry,
rushed, distracted, or disgusted. ”62
On the other hand, a study at Yale University focused on the views of
liberals and conservatives when they imagined a fearful situation such as
flying in airplanes and then imagined being completely safe. After the flying
experiment, liberals and conservatives reported the typical differences on
social issues, apparently because flying increased a sense of fear. “But if they
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 35
3/1/19 1:59 PM
36 Part I: How Narcissists and Sociopaths Get Elected
had instead just imagined being completely physically safe, the Republicans
became significantly more liberal—their positions on social attitudes were
much more like the Democratic respondents. ”63
While many politicians may say that power comes from organizing
ability or good policies, Wannabe Kings emphasize fear or terror, as Hitler
explained in his step- by- step method in Chapter 2. One Russian- born
author, Masha Gessen, recently said this while analyzing Vladimir Putin’s
presidency and history: “Ideology was essential only at the very beginning,
for the future totalitarian rulers to seize power. After that, terror kicked in. ”64
In the United States in 2018, it’s interesting that a book came out titled
Fear: Trump in the White House, in which the author, Bob Woodward quoted
candidate Donald Trump as saying: “Real power is—I don’t even want to use
the word—fear. ”65
Remember it’s not about the politics; it’s about the personality.
Conclusion
In reality, it seems that a family, workplace, community, and country need
both liberals and conservatives to balance each other’s novelty seeking and
stability seeking, openness to strangers and caution about strangers, loyalty
to leaders and skepticism of leaders, and sensitivity to fear. But HCP Wan-
nabe Kings use emotional warfare— they seduce, attack, divide, and domi-
nate — to create chaos, conflict, confusion, and fear as a manipulative way to
gain power for themselves.
When the Wannabe Kings are on the far left, the Loyalists tend to be lib-
eral and the Resisters tend to be conservative (although there are some aghast
liberals). Likewise, when the Wannabe Kings are on the far right, the Loyal-
ists tend to be conservative and the Resisters tend to be liberal (and some
aghast conservatives). Remember, these are primarily emotional tendencies.
Since we have different hard- wired or learned responses to this emo-
tional warfare, we instinctively react with fight, flight, freeze, or follow. We
fall into the trap of disagreeing with each other when we could unite and stop
Wannabe Kings from ever getting elected. But why is this seemingly obvious
manipulation increasing in the twenty- first century rather than fading away?
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 36
3/1/19 1:59 PM
4
HIGH- EMOTION MEDIA
Over the past three decades, the technology of media has undergone a
huge change. At least seven seismic shifts have laid the groundwork for
the recent increase in HCPs who want to be the center of attention and in
charge of everything and everyone in their communities or countries:
1 FACE AND VOICE NEWS For centuries, print media—newspapers, maga-
zines, and books—were our primary sources of news and useful infor-
mation. Not anymore. No
w we have largely shifted away from the written
word and back to the highly emotional realm of faces and voices.
Television, radio, movies, streaming video, and social media all commu-
nicate strong face and voice emotions much more than they communi-
cate the details required for thoughtful problem- solving. Today, even
newspapers and magazines provide us with plenty of faces and voices on
their websites and in their podcasts.
It’s not that old- fashioned books, magazines, and newspapers can’t be
highly emotional. (Think of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, or Adolf
Hitler’s Mein Kampf.) It’s just that they are such frequent sources of
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 37
3/1/19 1:59 PM
38 Part I: How Narcissists and Sociopaths Get Elected
useful information and guidance that most readers can immediately spot
and recognize a passage or headline that is highly dramatic.
As described in Chapter 3, emotions are contagious and they can slip
into our brains without our conscious awareness. Figure 4 shows how
I imagine the information now flowing into our minds (Simply put: left
brain generally processes words, right brain generally processes facial
expressions and tone of voice. This is unrelated to political left and
right.):
Left Brain
Right Brain
FIGURE 4 . Rational media vs . emotional media . Copyright © 2019 Bill
Eddy, All Rights Reserved, Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths—And How We
Can Stop, Berrret -Koehler Publishers
Eddy_WhyWeElect.indd 38
3/1/19 1:59 PM
4: High- Emotion Media 39
2 MEDIA COMPETITION Modern media outlets have exploded during the
past thirty years with cable TV, the internet, community TV, and social
media all competing with the major networks and TV stations. And
there’s no more Walter Cronkite thoughtfully deciding what news we
need to see. Instead, all of these media outlets—from the most thought-
ful and careful to the outright sociopathic—compete for “market share.”
To come out ahead in this competition, many media outlets often show
the most extreme, attention- getting, bad behavior they can. The goal is to
grab people by their emotions (especially using intense faces and voices).
3 HIGH- EMOTION MEDIA CRAVES HIGH- CONFLICT PERSONALITIES More than