Why We Elect Narcissists and Sociopaths- And How We Can Stop!
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much wider reach and could allow the killing of just about anyone.
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Small- time users, not just big- time pushers, are targets for aggressive
police operations. A bloodbath has resulted. Last August, the govern-
ment’s “One- Time Bigtime” busts left 52 dead in one night. By the turn of
this year, 4,075 people had died in anti- drug operations, according to the
government. . . . Whether the killers are out- of- uniform policemen silenc-
ing witnesses to their own corruption or neighborhood hoodlums using
the drug war as a cover to settle scores, the violence has been immense.174
Fantasy Heroes
Duterte has been viewed as a hero by a large number of Filipinos. The police
are also frequently seen as heroes, but they too may be part of the fantasy.
They are frequently identified as corrupt and a source of drugs. They often
collect money from the funeral parlors that get the bodies of those they have
killed. Ironically, police violence and corruption may be the biggest barriers
to reducing the drug problem.175
Occasionally, Duterte accuses the police of corruption, but this doesn’t
last. One theory is that his true goal with the extreme police measures he
has advocated in his drug war is to lay the groundwork for establishing an
authoritarian government with himself as dictator.176
But will the Filipino people put up with a dictatorial approach? Some
think that the Philippine population places a deep value on loyalty and def-
erence. However, depending on the circumstances, this loyalty can easily
and suddenly change.
This is a democracy that social conventions render capable of behaving
like an autocracy. Representatives can turn like a school of fish.177
High- Conflict Media
As with all of the other Wannabe Kings, Duterte is constantly giving
speeches and talking to the people on television, emotionally repeating the
same messages of victimhood and the evil people behind it.
But it’s not just what he says and how he says it on the media. Signs are
pointing to Duterte also gaining control of the media so that his emotionally
repetitive messages may also become in isolation for his people, making the
messages all the more powerful. He threatened the owners of the country’s
top newspaper and top online news source with jail unless they sold their
interest to a close Duterte supporter. They did.
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Duterte was also the first politician in the Philippines to master the use
of social media in an election, and he used it a lot in 2016, including fake
news posts.
(“Even the Pope admires Duterte,” ran one quite false post.) Today, many
of the country’s top bloggers are Duterte diehards, like the “30-ish- year-
old Filipino citizen journalist” R. J. Nieto, who blogs under the name
Thinking Pinoy (the Filipino word for Filipino) and describes himself as
“crazily patriotic, almost a nut job.” Nieto is described by his adversaries
as one of the worst practitioners of “fake news. ”178
5 5 5
Venezuela: Nicolas Maduro
Venezuela is an oil- rich nation that had a democracy for many years. It was
seen as a success story among the world’s developing nations. Although it
was dominated by an oligarchy of wealthy families and most people remained
very poor, there was a growing middle class.179
In 1998, Hugo Chavez was elected president with 56 percent of the vote,
with his closest opponent garnering only 39 percent. He did not have any
prior experience as a politician and had not even worked in the public sector
prior to his election. He saw himself as the leader of a revolution. His goals
were to end corruption, democratize the oil industry, and end poverty. He
was a charismatic leader, fighting for the poor against the rich and against
the United States, which he regularly blasted in his television speeches.
However, Chavez is not the focus here. He died of cancer in 2013 and
Venezuelans went on to elect his hand- picked successor, Nicolas Maduro,
by a very slim majority.
Maduro’s Early Years
As a youth, Maduro claims he was a bit of a hippie. He rode (and crashed)
motorcycles, played in a band, and studied the teachings of an Indian mystic.
In politics, however, Maduro was more hard- nosed. His father had been
a leftist trade unionist, and, at the age of twelve, Maduro joined the stu-
dent union, where he became known as an outspoken partisan. He dropped
out of school soon afterward and later joined the leftist group the Socialist
League, whose slogan was “Socialism is won by fighting. ”180
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High- Conflict Personality
Maduro lacked the charisma of Chavez and the money of the Venezuelan
oil boom, as the worldwide market for oil experienced a dramatic decline in
oil prices. He also lacked both cleverness and subtlety. Some report concern
that he may have a paranoid personality. At the least, he seems to have a
high- conflict personality with plenty of Targets of Blame.
Maduro’s lack of trust of those outside his inner circle and the continuous
quest for common enemies (either against himself or the government’s
social, economic and political project) has been present in his discourse
and sometimes displayed very vehemently in his social media strategy.181
As the following shows, he appears to be increasingly authoritarian.
Fantasy Crisis
Maduro’s recipe for creating a crisis was as simple as it was brutal: blame all
of Venezuela’s problems on “counterrevolutionaries,” and apply that term to
anyone and everyone he wanted to defeat.
He also sees himself and his country as under attack from the United States.
Socialist President Nicolas Maduro said Wednesday that he has uncov-
ered an assassination plot that leads directly to the White House. Ven-
ezuela’s leader repeated his frequent warning that a U.S. invasion is
imminent—this time giving some details but no evidence. . . . President
Donald Trump early in his administration publicly mused about using the
“military option” to remove Maduro from power, with advisers urging
against the idea.182
It’s hard to know how much of this fear is fantasy and how much could
be real. This is one of the problems in trying to understand a relationship
between two potential HCPs.
Fantasy Villains
Maduro has gradually become more extreme: he jails his political opponents
and is labeling more and more people as counterrevolutionaries.
The revolution had so far been lenient, he said, but it was time that
“counter- revolutionaries” be handled “with justice and firmness.” He
acknowledged that it was not easy for outsiders to understand what was
going on in Venezuela. “This is a revolut
ion,” he said. “And we’re in the
midst of an acceleration of the revolutionary process. ”183
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He sees the United States as a Target of Blame coordinating with his
opponents. On December 9, 2018, a New York Times article states that
“Maduro said many opposition leaders are waiting for a U.S.-led invasion
without giving details. ”184
Fantasy Hero
Maduro has always seen himself as a revolutionary hero, with a drive for
more and more power. In order to gain complete control, in 2017 he rewrote
the constitution and replaced the legislature:
The National Assembly, where the opposition holds a majority, has cen-
sured him for “abandoning the Presidency” and consistently foiled his
initiatives. Maduro, frustrated, decided to simply create his own legis-
lature—a replacement body, filled with loyalists, that was empowered to
rewrite the country’s constitution. Throughout the spring, his struggle
with the opposition inspired a four-month confrontation between the
government and protesters in which scores of people died and hundreds
were injured. Finally, in July, Maduro successfully held elections for the
new body, which he called the constituent assembly. The protests died
out, and, for the first time since becoming President, he seemed firmly in
control.185
But by the time of this writing in January 2019, Maduro’s country is pre-
dictably in shambles; many of its people are impoverished, and some are on
the verge of starvation. He gives special treatment to those who swear abso-
lute loyalty, but millions of Venezuelans have fled to neighboring countries.
Maduro’s hold on power appears to be unraveling, with a strengthening
opposition and weakening allies. But this can be the most dangerous time,
when Wannabe Kings lash out and tighten their control.
High- Emotion Media
Maduro tries to make effective use of television in a similar way to Chavez;
he has a folksy style just like his mentor, although not as appealing.
Maduro’s speeches are blunt and provocative, animated by a bumptious
sense of humor and a voice that suggests someone who has spent a great
deal of time rallying crowds without a microphone. As cameras rolled, he
delivered an hour-long soliloquy—a mixture of folksy homilies, social-
ist slogans, jokes, and bluster, centered on his victory over his political
opponents.186
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Once again, television may be the most powerful form of high-emotion
media that is made to order for this Wannabe King. But it may not be enough.
5 5 5
Italy: Berlusconi and the Next Wannabe Kings
Italy was one of the European nations that went in big for democracy after
the end of World War II. Before that war, in 1922, the king of Italy appointed
Benito Mussolini as prime minister. He was the head of the Fascist Party,
which was very nationalistic and believed in having a dictator. They declared
a Fascist state in Italy in 1925, with Mussolini as the leader (“Il Duce”). He
was popular and led the nation into an alliance with Germany’s like- minded
dictator Adolf Hitler.
However, by 1943, when World War II was going badly for Italy, Mussoli-
ni’s Fascist Party turned on him. He was arrested and subsequently executed
in 1945. His body was hung by its feet in the public square for all to see what
had become of him. In 1946, Italy’s monarchy ended and it became a democ-
racy. It has remained a democracy ever since; however, the arrival of Silvio
Berlusconi on the national political scene in the 1990s apparently put that in
jeopardy—up to the present.187
Berlusconi’s Early Years
Silvio Berlusconi was born in 1936 in Milan. His father was a bank clerk and
his mother was a housewife. He and his family suffered through the carpet
bombings of the Allied forces during World War II, with bombs landing as
close as his own street. He reports that he was close to his mother and that
after his father came home from the war, he “walked around with pure sun-
shine in his pocket.” 188
Berlusconi grew up in a tough lower- middle- class neighborhood with
plenty of troublemakers around. At school he got bullied, until one day he
fought back; after that, he was never bullied again and became a leader. He
was known as a quick study at school and highly entrepreneurial. He made
money helping other students study.189
At the age of twenty- five, he made his first real estate deal. He took that
industry by storm and eventually became a billionaire. Then, when govern-
ment rules made it easier to own a TV and media business, he took that
industry by storm too.190 Then he set his sights on politics.
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High- Conflict Personality
Berlusconi was the prime minister of Italy for nine years (off and on, span-
ning the years between 1994 to 2011)—the- longest serving prime minister
since WWII. He showed many signs of being an HCP Wannabe King during
his two administrations. In 2012, after nearly twenty years in Italian poli-
tics, he was convicted of tax fraud and was facing expulsion from the Italian
Senate. At that time, a psychologist said he had a personality disorder:
As Silvio Berlusconi prepares to face a vote on his explusion [sic] from
parliament on Wednesday evening, one of Italy’s leading psychologists has
said the former prime minister shows signs of “madness” and has a “per-
sonality disorder”.
The diagnosis was made by Luigi Cancrini during an interview with
Radio 24.
He said Berlusconi, who in July was convicted of tax fraud by the supreme
court—his first definitive criminal conviction, has “narcissistic personality
disorder. ”191
Fantasy Crisis
In the early 1990s, Italy faced many financial woes and all five of the country’s
left- leaning governing parties were the subjects of corruption investigations.
Berlusconi came into office as an independent, brash, overbearing personal-
ity. He sold himself as the only viable savior of a struggling nation: he was the
political outsider who would save Italy from the villainized, vanquished gov-
ernment that had lost power and was on the way out because of these inves-
tigations. He promised to restore the country to international prominence.192
Fantasy Villains
His villains were the five pro- western governing parties, including former
communists and liberals. He claimed that these groups were stripping Ital-
ians of their privileges—and increasing their taxes.
Fantasy Hero
Berlusconi promised that, if elected, he would provide wealth and grandeur
for all, as well as a million more jobs. He would solve their debt crisis with
the European Union. These promises were obvious and transparent lies—
and, of course, impossible to achieve.193
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Berlusconi also launched a massive campaign of advertisements for him-
self on his three TV networks. “I am the Jesus Christ of politics,” Berlusconi
claimed in one ad.194
Berlusconi won the prime minister’s job but delivered on none of his
promises. Nevertheless, the narrative he told, over and over, was so effective
that Italians repeatedly forgave his complete failure to make good on those
promises—as well as for his own corruption.
In 2013, Berlusconi was convicted of tax fraud and given a four- year
prison sentence. Because he was over 70 years old, he was exempted from
direct imprisonment and instead served his sentence by doing unpaid com-
munity service. Berlusconi was also caught up in a variety of scandals involv-
ing many prostitutes, including one who was underage.195
High- Emotion Media
Not surprisingly, Berlusconi has had significant control of Italian media,
especially television.
For the past thirty years, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s family
has controlled Italy’s top three national TV channels, known as the Media-
set empire. As head of government, Berlusconi has also maintained a tight
grip on the “public service” national broadcaster, Radiotelevisione Italiana
(Rai). Together, Mediaset and Rai control roughly 90 percent of national
audience and advertising revenue shares.
. . .
This has made broadcast media coverage increasingly partisan. Berlusconi and
his government have repeatedly attempted to muzzle critical Italian media
and avoid scrutiny. Now, the only significant criticism of the government
comes from a handful of print outlets and a few isolated voices within Rai.
Berlusconi allegedly complained about critical voices within Rai and put pres-
sure on the directors to silence dissent. Past disclosures leaked to the media
have implicated Berlusconi and his allies in various corruption affairs.196
Although Berlusconi couldn’t run for office again because of his conviction
for fraud, he was able to lead a party into the 2018 elections. Although his
party actually came in third, his influence helped create an atmosphere of
anger that led to the victories of two other antiestablishment parties.