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| Benito Mussolini |
In her recent article “Could You Become a Dictator?” Pappas divvies up dictators into two distinct piles: the “sadists” (citing Hussein and Stalin), and the corruptibles (citing potentially the rest of us). She hints that sadists might just be made that way from the start – linking their “narcissism and paranoia” to a “personality profile.” But then she poses this corker: Could an ordinary, well-meaning person turn into a repressive despot?
A one-way mirror on most bedroom or living room walls would probably reveal quite a few “ordinary” despotic dynamics. There’s the typical “do it or else” scenario, coupled with the just-as-typical “my way or the highway” philosophy. When the ante gets dangerously upped, there’s also the all-too-common “blame the victim” takedown approach.
Just what is it that turns the average Joe into shades of the average Joe Stalin? Pappas cites a number of psychological studies that come to this common conclusion: The expanding power that a person feels in any given situation tends to magnify whatever (positive or negative) tendencies already exist in that person’s psyche. Therefore, if power corrupts - absolute power can, indeed, corrupt absolutely.
This is probably why many religions consider pride (ego) to be the deadliest of all sins. Because of its magnification power, it enlivens all of the lesser negativities. It especially preys upon those who are smugly convinced that “it” (fill in the blankety-blank) could never happen to them…
Resource
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20110214/sc_livescience/couldyoubecomeadictator
Copyright February 23, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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