A sociopath is a person who has no moral compass, no power of empathy to feel with or for others. Moral right and wrong are simply categories they don't access and probably can't.
Ayn Rand wrote several books that are bedside reading for some powerful men in Washington. Alan Greenspan sat at her feet and absorbed her philosophy and Clarence Thomas loves her work so much he requires his clerks to read it.
Ayn Rand modeled her superhero, John Galt in Atlas Shrugged on a serial killer of the day, Edward Hickman. Hickman killed and dismembered a 12 year old girl. Rand gushes about him, "Other people do not exist for him, and he does not see why they should. He had no regard whatsoever for all that society holds sacred, and with a consciousness all his own. He has the true, innate psychology of a Superman." Another hero, Howard Roark (in The Fountainhead) is described thus: "He was born without the ability to consider others."
Her philosophy is a distorted derivative of Neitsche's Superman ideas, but it is filtered through her enneagram style. She is a subtype of style One, self-preservation. Ones derive their morality from internal principles, not social norms. They are reformers and critics of social norms. Ones live by inner rules that they consider binding on everyone. Rand's philosophy is an elaboration of her unhealthy enneagram style. Ayn Rand created heroes and a "philsophy" that spelled out the bleak, heartless inner life of a sociopath.
When a One is a sociopath, as Ayn Rand is, then the internal rules are absolute and other people do not matter. Clarence Thomas, an obvious One, frightens me. He does not ask questions in the supreme court; he goes by his own vision and is largely unmoved by the opinion or information of others. I don't know that he is quite a sociopath, but seems very unhealthy. Donald Rumsfeld is probably another example of a sociopathic One.
Ones are not sociopathic more than other styles. Obama, Hilary Clinton and McCain are all healthy Ones. They are all convinced the world should operate the way they think, though. That's what reformers are all about.
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Wow! Are you sure you don't want to write this anonymously? Just kidding, sort of. I've never been brave enough to voice my true opinion of Ayn Rand; seeing her as a self-preservation One (and a sociopath) really helps.
ReplyDeleteI really like Ayn Rand's work, though I agree w/ the thoughts in this post.
ReplyDeleteThe lead characters in her fictional work make excellent reference points. Objectivism is a solid foundation for growth , as long as the student understands the difference between theory and application.
It's a pleasure to be working w/ you, Clarence. You are a truly gifted coach and the insights you are helping me to make are already having an impact on my life.
Well,phew,just got a shock! I was googling you, Thomas, and read in the script above that you reckon Clarence THOMAS is a sociopath, and I confused your name with his, thought then that I must be on some other guys web-page- ( a guy called Coach Merlin)- and that my googling had brought up an article calling you a sociopath, and I got scared. Because- I'm half way through your book 'Parables and the Enneagram' and finding it fascinating, a bit hopeful too-(though tentatively)- regarding god, because I have such an awful view/ fear/ resentment/ confusion/ whatever re god. and your book is loving, strong yet kind and is challenging my ideas of God, by showing me the differeent ideas about God's love that the different enneagram types-including myself- hold. it is very touching- your book. So, at a time when I feel so desolate and untrusting and etc, to think -briefly though it was- that "maybe this guy is crazy too, and he made somuch sense,oh no!" was a horrible feeling. Anyway Im deciding to read the whole book- not just the intro's and my type- because I've noticed the ideas that different types hold re life/love/God/freedom are revealing to me. And making me get -a least a little more- the possibility that its the THINKING, the IDEAs that are in the way- maybe not an evil God after all. I am in a desperate way in my life, seeking, "depressed"-(to use the I think often silly, complicated yet reductionist-at-the-same-time language of the modern psychatric diagnoses of life and it's pains), and frightened by the life I have led, God and life itself, and finding it next to impossible to not believe what I believe- which is very dark and scary by the way. So thank you, for what I've read so far, All the best, From Sooz, Australia
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