A brutal time to be alive.
If fascism takes over the United States, the whole world trembles. Aside from that, experts claim the nuclear
threat is as bad, or worse, than the Cuban Missile Crisis, due to Putin’s wanton,
tyrannical aggression in Ukraine.
Donald Trump, who would lead a fascist US, is cut from the
same cloth as Putin. A narcissistic sociopathic
sadistic demagogue.
I’ll let that sentence settle ...
Sociopaths are not automatically bad people, any more than
the rest of us. They are reckless, impulsive
and transactional. With proper guidance,
which, admittedly, we lack in our general culture, they are functional members
of society.
Trump, however, is what experts call a “malignant narcissist.”
[1] This is the most dangerous classification
of personality disorders. Trump also has
a skill: he is a brilliant confidence man.
What this adds up to is a perfect storm: a brutal dictatorship without limits on its
descent into darkness and corruption.
Leaving that aside for a moment, consider this: technology is growing more and more
powerful. This means that our future can
be paradise or hell. It depends on who
is in charge.
If the right people are in charge, they will see that ethics
is one of the most important technologies to develop.
Ethics--how to know what is right and initiate it--involves human psychology, worldview, and straight-up philosophy.
The Sims, a computer game, provides a crude analogy. We can shape our societies
to maximize human flourishing and the beauty of the planet. How? Set the level of ethics tech higher.
Low ethics tech ==> war & suffering
High ethics tech ==> flourishing
Note that ethics is not simply a list of rules or commandments. It is a synergy between the science of human psychology and ecosystem dynamics; plus an adaptive, nuanced philosophical approach.
On the other hand, what happens if a malignant narcissists is in charge? Such a person will
stop at nothing to get power and adulation.
No respect for human rights, future generations, or the planet itself. This will favor totalitarian control. Such control will be enforced by robotic surveillance systems, which are in the process of being
enhanced in China.
So, at this juncture, human civilization has two paths. One goes to flourishing and happiness. Universal basic income, psychological health, benign robots doing the work we don’t want to do.
A leader in such a society will be psychologically healthy
and virtuous.
The other future is ruled by narcissism, greed, along with lack of
conscience or virtue. The result is enforcement
of obedience through strict police controls that include torture and execution.
Someone might argue that rulership by dictators can work--if
they are benevolent and intelligent.
First of all, big IF!
What we are looking at, right now, is the rise of fascism. Fascism is based on constructing an irrational cult of personality. There will be racism, sexism and
other oppressions. Fascism, also, is rife with corruption. Why? Lack of respect for rule of law. It’s all about might-makes-right.
One malignant personality is all it takes to start
WWIII. Look at Putin. He is on the edge of destroying us all.
Trump may be worse even than Putin. Trump has shown incredible incompetence. An inability to adapt to the facts, or even grasp them. Witness his hideous response to the pandemic. It involved gaslighting, contradiction and cruelty (e.g. knowing covid was dangerous while telling Americans it wasn't).
He has also said things like, 'If we have nuclear weapons, we ought to use them.'
This is the time we live in.
If we go too far in the dark direction, there won’t be any more chances. WWIII isn’t going to be like WWII, horrifying though the latter was.
Our level of death tech is much higher. We are far more capable of wiping ourselves out.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Case-Donald-Trump-Psychiatrists/dp/1250179459
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