I think ialdabaoth’s claim is valid if, when measured, the most politically and culturally powerful quintile of the world population proves to be more than 1-4% clinical psychopaths.
I am assuming the top quintile of world population is what is meant by winners: people who control a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources, and by proxy, people.
The USA has the world’s largest prison population, of ~2.2MIllion and a total population of ~316 Million (both 2013)
If we were to expect an even distribution of Psychopathy across the bellcurve of intelligence then there should be between ~1.58 Mn and ~6.32Mn Psychopaths in the US prison system.
Furthermore, we should expect 35.5Mn to 142Mn worldwide prison population of 100% <100IQ psychopaths.
This indicates that at least 70%, and perhaps as many as 92% of <100IQ Psychopaths are going free worldwide, this of course does not indicate that these individuals aren’t simply part of the exploited lower classes.
It also says nothing about the remaining population of >100IQ Psychopaths, presumably of equal size.
There is much hubub around some tabloid ‘research’ along the lines of “21%of leadership positions filled by psychopaths” However I can’t be bothered to validate the source so I won’t claim this is true.
This leaves me with a rather weaker position than I expected before writing this but you should draw your own conclusions.
I believe that clinical psychopaths will be overrepresented among: the ruling elite, prison population, and probably also victims of drug abuse. But given their relatively low base rate, there is a chance to win at life (or get to prison) without being one of them.
My steelmanning of Ialdaboath’s claim isn’t that it is impossible to succeed without being a psychopath. (Though I would definitely agree that his perspective is rather dreary and pessimistic)
It is that the paths to success in society have been distorted by psychopaths into requiring one to express psychopathic traits in order to succeed a lot more of the time than would be the case in absence of psychopaths within the ruling elite.
Yes, although I’d say it slightly more strongly: the paths to success have been distorted by psychopaths—and by our outright worship of them—into requiring one to express psychopathic traits in order to succeed, so much so that society’s various commons are—in general—being drained more quickly than they’re being replenished. Moreso, most of these so-called “successful” traits aren’t even seen as psychopathic anymore; they’re seen as “alluringly confident” or whatever.
I think ialdabaoth’s claim is valid if, when measured, the most politically and culturally powerful quintile of the world population proves to be more than 1-4% clinical psychopaths.
I am assuming the top quintile of world population is what is meant by winners: people who control a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources, and by proxy, people.
The USA has the world’s largest prison population, of ~2.2MIllion and a total population of ~316 Million (both 2013)
If we were to expect an even distribution of Psychopathy across the bellcurve of intelligence then there should be between ~1.58 Mn and ~6.32Mn Psychopaths in the US prison system. Furthermore, we should expect 35.5Mn to 142Mn worldwide prison population of 100% <100IQ psychopaths.
However it is a mere 10.3Mn (all 2013 statistics)
This indicates that at least 70%, and perhaps as many as 92% of <100IQ Psychopaths are going free worldwide, this of course does not indicate that these individuals aren’t simply part of the exploited lower classes. It also says nothing about the remaining population of >100IQ Psychopaths, presumably of equal size.
There is much hubub around some tabloid ‘research’ along the lines of “21%of leadership positions filled by psychopaths” However I can’t be bothered to validate the source so I won’t claim this is true.
This leaves me with a rather weaker position than I expected before writing this but you should draw your own conclusions.
I believe that clinical psychopaths will be overrepresented among: the ruling elite, prison population, and probably also victims of drug abuse. But given their relatively low base rate, there is a chance to win at life (or get to prison) without being one of them.
My steelmanning of Ialdaboath’s claim isn’t that it is impossible to succeed without being a psychopath. (Though I would definitely agree that his perspective is rather dreary and pessimistic) It is that the paths to success in society have been distorted by psychopaths into requiring one to express psychopathic traits in order to succeed a lot more of the time than would be the case in absence of psychopaths within the ruling elite.
Yes, although I’d say it slightly more strongly: the paths to success have been distorted by psychopaths—and by our outright worship of them—into requiring one to express psychopathic traits in order to succeed, so much so that society’s various commons are—in general—being drained more quickly than they’re being replenished. Moreso, most of these so-called “successful” traits aren’t even seen as psychopathic anymore; they’re seen as “alluringly confident” or whatever.
At which point in time and in which societies the paths were NOT “distorted”? When and where was the Golden Pre-Psychopath Age?
...cops and prison guards as well.