Well … there’s also another thing at work to consider: people tend not to feel a lot of empathy towards those they see as “beneath” them.
That’s not a psychopath thing; it’s a people thing. If you don’t have to care about someone’s opinion, you … well. Don’t. Typically.
So, leaders and other powerful people seeming a little psychopathic to those “beneath” them? Kinda usual. Doesn’t mean they’re really psychopaths, though.
There’s probably a lot of blurring of the lines and far more people who are than you’d like to really consider.
Maybe, but it’s one of those things that is most successful if people aren’t watching out for it. And people watch out for it less if it’s rare.
And there’s no reason to think all psychopaths are genius actors or anything, so…
This momentarily piqued my interest until I realized I’d misread sects.
Just the successful ones…who’d work their way into positions of corporate power…
Note I’m not saying “never,” Ms. Ember. Just … maybe not so often as you’d think? Particularly given that there’s that human tendency to disregard the less powerful and high-level corporate executives are more powerful than almost everybody?
To put it a little differently: I think it’s easier for people to fail to exercise empathy, while maintaining the capacity for it, than to fake it all the time.
Possibly. I doubt the results of a study into this would be welcomed.
Welp, guess I’ll have to do it. For science!
Having the tools to be a monster doesn’t require you to be one.
Well, while the “real” scientists are too busy asking themselves if they should, I’m the one asking wether I can or not. Because science, huh, finds a way?
And despite all my acomplishments in multiple fields, nobody takes me serious as a scientist! Or a pirate! Or anything else for that matter!
I’ll show them! I’ll show them all!
Congratulations, you appear at least to be seriously deluded…
I propose humane euthanasia for all afflicted individuals.
Death by laser is usually very quick.
Usually.
Well, when’s the last time you published something for peer review?
Never?
Of course, you will never be taken seriously.
My science is above the standard by which I review my peers. Of which I have none!
And this is why you are never taken seriously.
I believe there’s another term for this kind of science. Right. It’s called Mengelian Science.
No idea who or what is a Mengelian, but that’s the term I caught.
Pretty sure he was one of Morthane’s head researchers back before Luminaire was a unified planet. Bad dude, if I’m remembering right. Unethical whatsit, everywhere.
Isn’t that an old Amarrian legend dating back ten thousands of years ago? Of a priest who discovered genetics by counting peas?
Well, I did the exact same thing with nanites to program them with a procedural generated strain specialization protocol, so that they reproduce and replicate in a controlled manner based on a numeric seed code and I’ve yet to get proper recognition for that!
Oh, that will be Mendel. I think he is something of a Saint, who discovered how inheritance worked.
Mengele, Mendel, angel, peas, potato, tomato! I thought we were talking about people that didn’t get enough recognition for their scientific non-peer reviewed breakthroughs!
We apologize for the length of our response to the article, but the months of cryopreservation leave us susceptible to long intervals of thought. Nothing travels quickly at 77 degrees Kelvin, not the liquids which make us that are no better than frozen streams, nor our limbs which lie as still as corpses. Though, if any thoughts remain, the near-absolute-zero neural wireways relay their electrical impulses perfectly with no resistance… so our thoughts echo in our cryo-casket, refusing to lie still and be quiet.
Is religion a product of some deviation in the brain? Certainly we could argue that Heretics appear to be suffering some dementia or mental defect. What else could explain such aberrancy?
As a convert, we have often grappled with the question of whether our turn of Faith was an act of Free Will, or the result of a neurochemical process we have no control over. When we were a slave, a chip in our brain had experienced some deterioration in its power generation circuit which used our bioactivity as a source. The chip’s power had become unstable, and the instability made it unpredictable.
Often it would function as designed. It would smooth out the harsh edges of defiance, and anger, and self-destructiveness and alter these negatives to redirect them into the wholesome pleasure of physical labor. Sometimes the circuit would surge and the device transmitted tidals of pain. Somtimes the pain would be enough that we would want to end our own life to escape it. Is suicide a choice? God believes that it is.
If we chose God and chose to convert to the Amarr Faith, did the chip in our brain contribute to that choice? Did we make the choice to ease the pain of the whip and the rod? Did we make this choice as an act of Acceptance, in betrayal of Hope? Were we coerced, so as to say that the choice was made for us by another? When we flood our brain with C3, which some Capsuleers do, does the resulting partitioning and heightened neurofunction deprive us of the essence of who we are, and do we make different choices than we might with a clear head?
We have pondered such questions in the silence of our cryo-casket and we are left only to conclude that Faith is a choice. Pain does not buy us conviction. We may say that we will do anything to be rid of pain, but is Faith the product of a bargain? Bargains start fading the moment they are struck. Faith survives even death itself. Fear does not build a path to salvation. Under the influence, we could make rash decisions with dire consequences, but we would never remain with these choices once sober.
If there was truly a brain defect which could explain our Faith, then how does Faith take so specific a form? Defects are random, and randomness is the seed of chaos. Faith is the opposite of chaos. Faith is order, and core beliefs, and dedication, and structure.
If one is to attribute Heresy to a brain defect, then it removes the element of Free Will which is the core characteristic of Faith. A brain defect would absolve the Sani Sabik of responsibility for their actions. The killing of Sani Sabik could potentially be considered a crime, if it could be argued they are mentally ill. Blood Raiders commit psychotic acts, but are all psychotic acts commited by Blood Raiders? Whether you like it or not, even their Heretical Faith takes a specific form, with specific prescriptions for salvation, rituals, prayer, and so on.
Take it from a person of Faith. Our choice for salvation is neither coerced, nor the product of random defects in the brain. Faith is a conscious choice, for which the person is fully responsible. Take comfort in our conclusion as you put a Blood Raider ship in your crosshairs. You are not attacking the mentally ill. Far from it.