Kinetix Jun 14, 2025
@Crispius Rather than numbers these days, I think it would be better to have a personality and knowledge test requirement so that psychopaths and those who want to lead based on ignorance are disqualified early on.
Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix

#Politics #History

👉Compulsory #psychologic testing for public officials👈

(1/n)

You are onto something here, Kinetix. This methodology had been used pretty successfully in ancient #China for hundreds of years:

The fact that the Eastern #Zhou dynasty.in the 6th/5th century BC was enabled by #Confucius to distinguish "good" from "bad" people and even..

@[email protected]

"The fact that the Eastern #Zhou dynasty of the 6th/5th century BC was enabled by #Confucius to distinguish "good"

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈

(2/n)

...to implement this in 👉standardized, #psychological "aptitude tests"👈 certainly explains (among other things) why that dynasty was able to remain in power until the 3rd century BC.

Perhaps the Eastern #Zhou realized so early on that 7% of the population had the predisposition of a #psychopath type #DarkTriad.1)

It...

1)
https://mastodon.social/@HistoPol/112767351744675253

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(3/n)

...is very fair to assume that he percentage surely was even higher among the applicants, as power is more attractive for e. g. #narcicists, #sadists, and other #psychopaths than gold:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-of-the-darkness/202310/why-do-psychopaths-crave-power

There have also been more recent discussions on how to exclude them from power:

https://theconversation.com/how-to-stop-psychopaths-and-narcissists-from-winning-positions-of-power-158183

*ETA:*

As I've just come to realize...

Why Do Psychopaths Crave Power?

Pyschopaths are drawn to power and wealth like moths to a flame because of their inner emptiness and incompleteness.

Psychology Today
Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(4/n)

...when searching pertinent #psychology articles to corroborate my hypothesis, I've just learned that these authors have already done that work 🤭:

"As the #psychologists #NiklasSteffens and #AlexanderHaslam put it,👉 “like moths to a flame, #narcissists may be drawn naturally to positions of #power and influence”👈.

Or as...

Jun 14, 2025 at 5:41pmTusky
Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(5/n)

...the #psychologist #RobertHare writes of 👉#psychopaths, they “are social predators and like all predators they are looking for feeding grounds. Wherever you get power, prestige and money, you will find them.👈

The most evil #leaders of the 20th-century, such as #Stalin, #Hitler, #MaoZedong, #PolPot, #SaddamHussein and #ColonelGaddafi,...

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(6/n)

...👉clearly had severe dark triad traits.👈 They didn’t become leaders because of their ability or intelligence, but simply because they👉 had a tremendous desire for power and were incredibly ruthless and cruel in their pursuit of it.👈

👉Many present day #politicians appear to have #psychopathic and #narcissistic traits too.👈 It’s easy to spot such leaders,..

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory #psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(7/n)

...because they are always authoritarian, following hardline policies. 👉They try to subvert democracy, to reduce the freedom of the press and clamp down on dissent. They are obsessed with national prestige, and often persecute minority groups. And they are always corrupt and lacking in moral principles...👈

Like many #MentalHealth professionals,...

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(8/n)

...the president’s niece, #MaryTrump – a clinical #psychologist – voiced her opinion that 👉#Trump suffers from a range of personality disorders. She suggested that his main issue was his severe #narcissism, but also that he “meets the criteria for #AntisocialPersonalityDisorder, which in its severe form is generally considered #sociopathy”...

"The...

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(9/n)

... 👉essence of the problem is that callous, low-empathy people are drawn to power, whereas empathic and responsible people (who would make ideal leaders) don’t have a desire for dominance.

*What can be done?*

Like others who have studied the problem of “corporate psychopathy”,👉 the Australian, #psychologist #CliveBoddy...

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory #psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(10/n)

...has suggested that companies should screen leadership candidates for #psychopathy.👈 In my view, we should do something similar in #politics..."

And, as pointed out in the beginning, the #EasternZhou did do exactly this for centuries, based on principles developed by one of the greatest philosophers of mankind, #Confucius.

IMO,...

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(11/n)

...these old tests should be translated and updated to present-day life. New research could be integrated in a second step or using peer groups to compare the outcomes.

*Is it worth it?*

Well, if just one of the aforementioned #Psychocrats like #Stalin, #Mao, or #Hitler could have been avoided, how different might the 20th century have turned out?--Tens...

Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix @[email protected]

👉Compulsory #psychologic testing for public officials👈
*Like Moths to the Flame--The Rise of the #Pathocracy*

(12/12)

...of millions of people and there progeny would have lived, making their, now lost forever, contributions to mankind. --7% #DarkTriads, you say? Well, yes, but using the #Confucian aptitude tests, most could have been filtered out, I'd reply. 😉

//

The last mentioned article is a #GoodRead:

https://theconversation.com/how-to-stop-psychopaths-and-narcissists-from-winning-positions-of-power-158183

How to stop psychopaths and narcissists from winning positions of power

Why companies (and political parties) should screen leadership candidates for psychopathy and narcissism.

The Conversation
Show threadKinetix Jun 14, 2025
@HistoPol @Crispius Reading! Thank you, I don't recall having read this before, probably a good time to do so even if I had tripped across it previously.
Show threadHistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴Jun 14, 2025

@kinetix

I have been looking at #DarkTriads for some years now (on and off.)
They dominate most people's lives. It is so amazing, that even psychogists sometimes have not heard of them.

If you start with my oldest linked article (a short one,) many things will fall into place.

@[email protected]