We are living in the age of the narcissistic leader. In this talk Ian Hughes explains how leaders with dangerous personality disorders – psychopaths and those with narcissistic and paranoid conditions – are rising to power and destroying democracy.
Those who struggle for freedom across the world know that free elections, the rule of law, human rights, freedom of the press, and equality regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation are the pillars of democratic systems that protect us from a minority who would subjugate us and turn us against one another for their personal gain. Democracy matters because it is all that stands between us and the Hitlers, Stalins, Maos and Pol Pots that live among us still. Continue reading here.
Donald Trump’s victory is a major blow to western democracy, delivering as it does the most powerful position on earth to a man who clearly demonstrates personality traits that many psychiatrists and mental health professionals have warned are consistent with narcissistic personality disorder. Trump’s most divisive acts during the election campaign are consistent with someone who suffers from this serious emotional and mental disorder. As the UK Guardian newspaper points out, by electing someone whose behaviour is consistent with this severe disorder, Americans have done a very dangerous thing, and because of what they have done,the world faces dark, uncertain and fearful times. Continue reading
Like pure democracy, undiluted capitalism is intolerable
Wilhelm Ropke
Two pillars in our modern system of democracy emerged from the catastrophes of world war and genocide. These building blocks are social democracy and the legal protection of individual human rights. Continue reading
According to the historian Roger Osborne, the American Revolution was the most decisive event in the history of democracy. Within the first seventy years of the new United States of America’s existence, every white adult male had the right to vote in state and federal elections, almost every important public official was elected, a series of national and state institutions had been set up to protect citizens from the power of the state and from the tyranny of the majority, political parties had been established that relinquished power peacefully after elections, and a culture of mass participation in politics had emerged. Continue reading
Of all the pillars in our modern system of democracy, none has had as great an impact as the development of the rule of law. The rule of law reduces violence, provide a means of holding leaders to account, forces a degree of rationality into political decision making, and offers protection for citizens against the arbitrary actions of their rulers. Continue reading
disorderedworld 