No conscience

With "drill, baby, drill" morphing into "kill, baby, kill" with the rise of oil from the ocean's floor and the rise of the consequences of the Cheney energy ethics, perhaps we should take a look at what a sociopath is and how they work.
A sociopath, according to Martha Stout, author of The Sociopath Next Door, has no conscience and cannot feel the pain or even the affection of anyone else.
I found it illuminating to learn the motivation that prompts them to disregard any social and moral norms. It is the desire to dominate.
In sociopathic people, community or cooperation is not valued. Nor are emotional bonds. Life is reduced to a desire to win. Dick Cheney dismissed moral considerations as he wrote "What good are principles if in the end you lose?" The lust for domination knows no limits.
We see this limitlessness when it is written large on a national scale. Project for a New American Century (PNAC) enthusiastically embraced America as ruling the world as the only super power. No talk of cooperation or community - military supremacy fueled by oil from Iraq.
But closer to home, 4% of people sociopaths - that's one out of 25. They look like us, the talk like us, but they don't think like the rest of humanity. They are only interested in winning, domination and control.
On a more muted note, domination is the default position in many relationships if the emotional bonds are frayed or broken.