The Coastal Post - March 1997
A while back I was in a store and a television was blaring from the upper corner of the showroom. Bill Clinton was giving the so-called "State of the Union" address. There were no other customers in the store, and I, being virulently allergic to the fetid slime bag from Arkansas, petulantly asked the sales clerk to either change channels or turn off the damn television while I perused the merchandise. The sales clerk changed channels... and I was confronting the lunatic hubbub pending the O.J. Simpson civil trial's jury decision. I couldn't help myself. I pontifically blurted out: "Can't you see? America's consciousness is presently dominated by two lying sociopaths!" The sales clerk, a young white woman, looked at me with wide, stunned eyes. "Do you really think that O.J. did it?"
I think she was kidding. And she prudently didn't tell me what she thought of our Commander in Chief. I didn't ask. I already suspected her point of view, because she had been imbibing his rhetorical bilge with rapt attention.
Later, I went to the dictionary (Webster's) and looked up "sociopath". The word isn't in the dictionary. My computer's spell checker has it in memory, but it wasn't in the dictionary. And it wasn't in a huge 1934 Webster's that is ponderously nested on my bookshelf.
I was told, back in Psych. 101, that a sociopath is a completely amoral person, someone with zero conscience. Luckily, not many members of society are afflicted with this immense character flaw, but (and this is the scary part) those who are, often have high intelligence. High intelligence mixed with zero conscience equals, in my estimation, a character trait called "cunning". One would have to call O.J. a cunning man. And one would certainly not be off the mark in so characterizing William Jefferson Clinton.
Let me list some other cunning sociopaths who have left their mark on history.
Karl Marx: A brilliant, yet personally despicable, human being. One of his mottoes: "Religion is the opiate of the masses."
Vladimir Lenin: The totally ruthless first leader of the Soviet Union. It was Teddy Roosevelt, I believe, who once called Lenin "evil incarnate".
Joseph Stalin: Responsible for the murder of more than 20 million Russian citizens. Harry Truman once delicately referred to Papa Joe as "one evil son of a bitch".
Mao Tse Tung: Responsible for the murder of more than 60 million Chinese citizens. Completely unfettered by the "weakness of conscience".
Adolph Hitler: Considering the body count, not quite the big league genocidist of either Mao or Stalin, but still paving his way to hell over the bodies of some 16 million innocent people.
Now, neither Clinton or O.J. are anywhere in the realm of kingpins listed above, but if either Clinton or O.J. were given the power that Stalin or Hitler had at their disposal I believe we would see a terrifying state of affairs.
Seriously. Imagine someone with absolutely no conscience. They can look you right in the eye and lie to you with a warm, puddin' cake smile that warms the cockles of your heart. Oh yes, I believe you do feel my pain, Mr. President. Because you tell me so. And I, because I am brainwashed human cattle, want so much to believe your teary-eyed, corn pone, socialist bull manure.
And O.J. trying on that glove? Lawdamighty, wasn't that touching? Yep, Mr. Lincoln was certainly correct. You can fool some of the people all of the time.
Above and beyond anything else, sociopaths are the ultimate materialists. I'm speaking here of the philosophy of materialism, not the greedy acquisition of material goods. To the pure materialist there is no God. There is no good and evil. There is just what works to their benefit and what doesn't work to their benefit.
Imagine being unencumbered by morality. There is no punishment for sin. There is no Heaven and there is no Hell. No karma. Social niceties don't bother you. Personal power is your goal, even if you have to grind others into a bloody pulp to achieve that power. After all, morality is relative, isn't it? Religion is the "opiate of the masses", isn't it? The only limit that concerns you is if you will be punished by your fellow human beings or not. You are only wrong if you get caught and punished.
The architects of the American Constitution understood the mentality of the sociopath. They had seen the tyranny of monarchies. They understood that the law and an armed citizenry must eternally stand as a barrier to the desires of the insatiably conscienceless who crawl out from under rocks and into the halls of power.
There is only one way to deal with the sociopaths among us. We must keep them afraid for their lives. A sociopath like O.J. must know that the gas chamber stands ready. (Or what if Nichole had just shot his halfback ass off?)
A sociopath like Bill Clinton (or many of the other men and women who lust for political power in America) must fear the citizenry. They must know that an uncorrupted legal system awaits to stop, and then harshly punish, their amoral behavior. Failing this, they must know that millions upon millions of armed Americans stand guard over their public servants and demand that the restraints of constitutional government be enforced, even at gun point. If you ever surrender your personal power (your right to keep and bear arms) into the hands of the sociopaths you will be enslaved. It will be like begging Charlie Manson for mercy.
Too few Americans have the common sense (or personal courage) to understand this. And so, the sociopaths among us fuel their ravening ambition with this comforting knowledge.
