Why Bullies are Attracted to Leveraged Distal Power Over Others: Suggestions on How to Prevent This Dynamic, in order to Prevent Harm.

A look at the pattern observed where Hierarchical Power Structures 'attract' some people who internalise power as a personal characteristic - "I want to be King of the World" - many of whom are bullies, men and women who are willing to abuse and harm others in order to gain, enhance, protect and project the power their position gives them, as part of their personal identification. 

This is written in the context of the politics of England, in the run up to Christmas 2021.

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Henry VIII, serial wife murderer, ruthless and cruel.

Oliver Cromwell, replaced the equally ruthless King Charles he and his allies murdered with his own Dictatorship, under the guise of Democracy.

Only for his enemies and subordinates to restore the Monarchy, 

as a device to bind the population to the Oligarchs Parliament via The Church of England. The real life English Game of Thrones.

Iain Duncan Smith, Architect of cruel and callous Universal Credit Sanction System

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the rouge of prorogation, the Brexit joker, the Covid profiteer.

Cameron, Patel, Chumocracy and Cronies who cashed in on a manufactured PPE crisis in the midst of a Pandemic

Blair, the liar who launched an illegal, amoral War of Aggression,

and brought in the notorious Work Capability Assessment regime.

Milošević was indicted on 24 May 1999 for war crimes 

Trump and Netanyahu, corrupt in business, manipulatively inciting violence for political and gain.

Johnson, who has lied and gaslighted the English people in order to drive a Herd Immunity policy designed to protect the Hoard, not the people.

The Daily Mail, owned by off-shore extreme right wing billionaires, publishes misinformation, lies and spin as 'opinion' as if it were equal to evidence, under the guise of 'Free Speech'.

Rupert Murdoch, accused by Malcom Turnbull of causing the deaths of millions of people. He is known as the 'king maker' of English Politics, and was directly responsible for the election of Tony Blair,

'Saj' Javid, a former CDO salesman posing as Secretary of Health, whose ending of preventative public health measures, which he claimed would 'make us all healthier', sent tens of thousands into Hospitals that were already over stressed by an on going pandemic, having spent the year prior to his appointment earning three times his MP salary working for JP Morgan whose greedy eyes are watering at the prospect of a Health Service for sale.

and the anthesis of all of the above, Jacinda Ardern, who holds empathy as a strength essential to healthy governance.

Jeremy Corbyn, a man too honest for the English Ruling Class to allow into Power.

Humane decency handling State Power understood as a threat to the pathocracy.

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Healthy Governance is possible, there are honest strong politicians who can make this work. But they need a population that understands the problem, and is engaged with the putting forward and implementing solutions. Socio-political adversarial division undermines the goal.

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When we study history we see that all too frequently that, as a class, Rulers were people who were ruthless, often violent, dependent upon a corps of other people whose sense of conscience or caring responsibility towards others with less power than they accrued by their association with Rulers was practically non-existent.  Allowing poor people to die in large numbers was not a moral issue for such people. 
Men and women, past and present, who would lie and manipulate other people's perceptions in order to groom support, in order to  evade accountability for actions they took or are taking that cause others harm.  
And outside the structures of Governance, there are the extremely wealthy, the Wealth Extraction Oligarchy who influence politicians to assure their power to influence legislatures and protect their wealth extraction remains unregulated, the kinds of people who lobby Government to impose outrageously harmful policies in the midst of an pandemic.
It is no surprise, really, that such an attraction prevails in hierarchal violent social power systems where some people take leveraged institutional power and use it to rule over others, to bend entire populations to their will, for personal gain as much as the sense of entitlement of an established ruling class to prevail over a population.

"L'etat, c'est Moi!"
The entitlement to Rule over-rules the duty of care to govern well. In that regard here's a distinction I make where I point to a significant difference between Rule and Healthy Governance.  Those who rule tend to seek to enhance and then protect their power, most often at the expense of other people, and they do so by sense of entitlement - they believe in their own superiority.  Whereas healthy governance is the careful administration of the shared commons, grounded in careful and transparent deliberation on the evidence, with an eye to avoiding avoidable harms, in order to nurture the whole community and such a drive comes from humility and empathy.
Secrecy is common in the former, transparency essential to the latter. Lies prevail among Rulers, honesty is characteristic of good democratic governance. Rulers assume their opinion has the same validity as evidence, and tend to deny  evidence that undermines their position. Those who govern well will engage with evidence and follow where it leads, adjusting policy as new evidence emerges, in order to nurture their communities.
Rulers seek compliance, healthy Governance seeks engagement and co-operation as the basis for action to be taken, with mutual consent.  Democracy was in part designed to regulate the former so that the latter could emerge as the standard everyone deserves, and be developed over time into a robust and healthy system of governance.
The Path to Pathocracy
Pathocracy is a term coined by a Polish psychologist and writer, Andrejz Lobaczewski

Definition: pathocracy (n). A system of government created by a small pathological minority that takes control over a society of normal people (from Political Ponerology: A Science on the Nature of Evil Adjusted for Political Purposes, by Andrejz Lobaczewski)
The origins of the word come from the Greek pathos, “feeling, pain, suffering”; and kratos, “rule”
Pathocracy therefore describes those Governments and Institutions which inflict pain -sanctions, penalties, impoverishment, marginalisation - upon people as a means to persuade, cajole, dominate or control entire populations.
"The transition to pathocracy begins when a disordered individual emerges as a leader figure. While some members of the ruling class are appalled by the brutality/ irresponsibility of the leader and his acolytes, his disordered personality appeals to some psychologically normal individuals. They find him charismatic. His impulsiveness is mistaken for decisiveness; his narcissism for confidence; his recklessness for fearlessness."
source: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-34/november-2021/problem-pathocracy writer: Steve Taylor
Profiles
In the UK, Boris DePeffiel Johnson, Nigel Farage, Tommy Robinson, Sajid Javid, Priti Patel, Iain  Duncan Smith, Steve Baker, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Desmond Swayne, Anthony Lynton Blair, William Cromwell, King Charles, King Henry VIII, William The Bastard and many, many others fit this behavioural profile well. 

They all sought power for personal gain, out of hubris. They all created and projected  a charismatic persona for public consumption. They all gathered people around them who would carry out their policies and protect their power, ruthlessly. 
They all sought funding and support for their power from others who wished to maintain and  enhance their wealth extraction methods through their sponsorship of those who occupied the positions of power. Who pays the piper calls the tunes.
"Soon other people with psychopathic traits emerge and attach themselves to the pathocracy, sensing the opportunity to gain power and influence. At the same time, responsible and moral people gradually leave the government, either resigning or being ruthlessly ejected. In an inevitable process, soon the entire government is filled with people with a pathological lack of empathy and conscience. It has been infiltrated by members of the minority of people with personality disorders, who assume power over the majority of psychologically normal people.".
Bullying is a core component of such behaviours. How bullying operates in politics - the struggle for power in any situation - is an interesting and pertinent subject.

Kitty Jones, an English writer on political science and social care systems wrote a detailed blog, 'How Bullying Works:  Projection and Scapegoating' that is one of the best I have ever read.

She goes through the various strategies and tactics of bullying as it plays out in Politics. It is a superb piece of informative writing. Well worth your attention, and easy to read, without dumbing down in any way.

"Very few people, when put to the test, have the integrity and moral courage to stand up against bullying, harassment, abuse, threats and corruption. The targets of adult bullying are selected often because they DO have the moral courage to challenge; many people will pass by on the other side.

A target of adult bullying is most often chosen because of their strength, not their weakness. Research shows that targets of bullying tend to have highly developed empathy, and sensitivity for others, a high degree of perceptiveness, high moral values, a well-developed integrity, a strong sense of fair play and reasonableness, a low propensity to violence, a reluctance to pursue grievance, disciplinary or legal action, a strong forgiving streak and a mature understanding of the need to resolve conflict with dialogue.

Often, targets of bullying are independent, self-reliant and “different” in some way. Some people often disingenuously confuse these hallmarks of character with weakness."

This really does define the mass media mistreatment of Jeremy Corbyn and Meghan Markel in the English News media of recent years. We all know many more examples of that dynamic than we should.

Albert Mayles, a film maker, once stated: “Tyranny is the removal of nuance.” Caricature is one of the tactics to obscure the humanity that detail always reveals. Right wing News Media tends towards caricature of those targeted for bullying.

So let's take a quick look at a recent example of bullying in politics, perpetrated by a Senior Minister, an incident that demonstrates some of this dynamic.
The target of the bullying settles out of court:  
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/mar/04/priti-patel-reaches-six-figure-settlement-with-ex-home-office-chief-philip-rutnam
"Priti Patel has reached a six-figure settlement with a senior civil servant after claims that he was forced out of his job for intervening in her alleged bullying of fellow staff, it has emerged.
Whitehall sources said Sir Philip Rutnam, a former permanent secretary in the Home Office, received a £340,000 settlement with a further £30,000 in costs. He had threatened to take the home secretary to an employment tribunal hearing in September."
This recent example concerns Home Office Minister Priti Patel, who  was accused of bullying staff within her department. A senior official, Sir Phillip Rutnam, with a distinguished career and a degree of seniority, tried to protect the persons bullied by Patel, by confronting her behaviour. He was then fired by the Patel. The evidence of bullying and thus unfair dismissal was good enough for the official to go to court, suing for unfair dismissal. The evidence was good enough to support employing expensive solicitors and barristers. 
Patel settled case out of court, in part by threatening massive increase in court costs that would obliterate any award, and induce even more stress upon the official. 
Another form of bullying.  Using the budget reach of the Government to frighten a claimant. The Government is using this tactic to put pressure on The Good Law Project which has spent the last two years exposing crony capitalism and other potentially criminal acts of this Government.
Rutnam chose to cut his losses and accept the settlement, and thus no confirmation of the bullying is placed on the record.  Obviously he could not return to work in the Civil Service with that poisonous cloud hanging over him.
Priti Patel evaded accountability, remained in office, and today continues to push legislation that amounts to bullying. Pushing asylum seeks adrift in the English Channel in small leaky boats back to France. Making peaceful protest practically a criminal offence. The Cabinet is also proposing legislation to allow Ministers to ask Parliament in which the Conservatives hold and 80 seat majority to set aside judicial rulings where the courts have found the Governments action unlawful. Bullying. It is all legalised bullying.

The Official Who is Forced to Quit:  
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/20/alex-allan-the-veteran-windsurfing-mandarin-who-quit-over-bullying
"It might only have been two sentences long and dressed in formal language, but Sir Alex Allan’s resignation statement made his feelings abundantly clear.
“I recognise that it is for the prime minister to make a judgment on whether actions by a minister amount to a breach of the ministerial code,” said the veteran civil servant – who helped oversee MI5, MI6 and GCHQ in his former role as chairman of the joint intelligence committee – adding: “But I feel that it is right that I should now resign from my position as the prime minister’s independent adviser on the code.”
Alex Allen, a lifetime civil servant, who has given more service to the State than Johnson and Patel combined, and who they ought to treat as their senior, quits because Johnson backed Patel, going against Allen's assessment. Alex Allen was tasked with maintaining codes of conduct, he carried out an investigation, named the bully, and his assessment was rejected. Johnson knew well Allen would resign, rather than stay in post. One more honest official removed. Job done.

Push the strong out of the way. 
The Fish that rots from the Head.
"Soon the pathology of the government spreads amongst the general population. As Lobaczewski wrote, ‘If an individual in a position of political power is a psychopath, he or she can create an epidemic of psychopathology in people who are not, essentially, psychopathic" 
https://goodreads.com/work/quotes/1467675-political-ponerology-a-science-on-the-nature-of-evil-adjusted-for-polit  
Leading by careful, theatrical, choreographed example via news and public broadcast performance is part of the tactical playbook of the likes of Boris Johnson and Donald Trump. Presented as the likeable rogue, they get away with  misconduct, repeatedly, because they arrange matters with their allies in the News Media to carry off the act, with commentary that portrays them as being funny, or boyish, or righteous. 

We have seen how frequently some ordinary citizens who cite 'one rule for them, one rule for us' as their excuse for their own misconduct are given air time and publicity as 'vox pop' segments. That line of justifying reckless behaviour is also encouraged via online microtargeted content. The activity of encouraging reckless behaviour among supporters, justified by the simplistic analyses of matters, which is part of what I call political grooming.

Microtargeting sends content to individual users and is mostly invisible to anyone other than the targets. Three people living in the same home could see entirely different materials, targeted at their specific biases.

The encouragement of bias in this way leads to spread of seemingly emergent reckless behaviour and thus the sense of the 'right' to abuse 'enemies' spreads. 
Protestors egg shops, assault police, stand outside Schools and Vaccination centers, etc., etc... the activists the justify their behaviour by claiming they are acting to preserve their 'Freedom' or asserting their 'Sovereignty'. Dog whistle politics provides cover for abusive behaviour. 

The technical term for the method of inciting street level recklessness to make it appear a natural outpouring of community level concern is astroturfing: creating the image of an organic self directed grass roots emergent movement - it looks like grass but it's plastic, manufactured.
The Populist Narrative is Simple
"The pathocracy government presents a compelling simplistic ideology, promoting notions of future greatness, with a need to defeat or eliminate alleged enemies who stand in the way of this great future."

Brexit, Make America Great Again, Oven Ready Deal. Cool Brittania.
Political Grooming operated with total impunity throughout Brexit. We need to understand how it operates, why it works, how to disarm it and how to prevent it. 
Political Grooming.
What is grooming?  When a person or agency targets a person or group of people, having studied their vulnerabilities - insecurities, fears, biases, hatreds  - and then uses various means to tap into those, and then deliberately exacerbates the emotions associated with these, in order to drive behavioural change that can be exploited by the targeting entity.
It is fundamentally and profoundly psychologically abusive. I wrote a blog that described how this operates, why it works, and how to disarm it, with suggestions on how to prevent it by defining grooming as psychological abuse, and thus a criminal offence. I used the Eu Referendum as an example.

https://dwylcorneilius.blogspot.com/2021/06/grooming-how-it-operates-why-it-works.html
Prevention hinges around recognising this activity as psychological abuse at scale, perpetrated against a population. However, even as a large part of the population recognise the harms, the people who have been groomed, manipulated and those who manipulated them persist with their position.  Obviously those who drove the propaganda cannot retract from their stance.

The difficulty for those who have been manipulated by emotional methods of grooming that create attachment, habituation and internalisation of the groomers world view is that detaching from it is an intense emotional challenge to their sense of identity, of self. 
Therefore both the groomers and the groomed, end up in a cornered position. The groomers are protected by the political power they have grabbed, and their asymmetric power to 'flood the content zone with their content' and thus they continue to push out a stream of denialism, as outlined in the article on Pathocracy by Steve Taylor. 

What needs to be understood is that the groomers also rely upon anger aimed at the groomed by others, because that anger generates a defence reaction among the groomed. It is critical that we see the groomed as being victimised by the groomers, and that we find ways to reduce anger at them, increase empathy for them and thus build bridges that help establish humane solidarity. In that way we can turn the tide from within the grass roots. The people most deserving of our ire are the groomers.

"a government uses propaganda to stoke hatred towards enemies, and to create a cult of personality around the leader. In the general population, there is an intoxicating sense of belonging to a mass movement, inspiring loyalty and self-sacrifice."

So we can see this - loyalty and sacrifice - among those who still support Brexit, even as the massive harms it has caused are being documented.

"A list of the economic self-harm caused by Brexit is set to be tapered off when it reaches 1,000 entries in the coming days or weeks.

R. Daniel Kelemen, a scholar of law and political science who holds the Jean Monnet Chair at Rutgers University, has been documenting the impact of the UK’s split with the European Union since the start of the year using hashtag #BrexitReality.

A mere eight months on he has already reached more than 950 entries, with the thread set to end when he hits the 1,000 mark."

Though Brexit will continue to damage the UK economy for years to come, I will end this #BrexitReality 🧵 on the economic self-harm caused by Brexit when it reaches 1000 entries.

Only 50 more to go! Please spread the word about it so more people can follow the final countdown https://t.co/k4D6Kpwmv0

— R. Daniel Kelemen (@rdanielkelemen) September 18, 2021

Even before the final vote in the EU Referendum, 'sacrifice' was a theme for the grass roots Conservative voters.

"A survey by YouGov suggests a majority of them would prefer Brexit took place to a host of scenarios, including 61% in favour of it even if it caused “significant damage to the economy”.
It suggests leaving the EU is by far the most important issue to the grassroots, even if it would see the party, officially called the Conservative and Unionist Party, abandon its unionist credentials.
Almost two-thirds of the members would be willing to allow Scotland to leave the United Kingdom, and 59% would rather Northern Ireland left than Brexit not taking place at all.
And 54% would rather see the Tories “destroyed” than stay in the European Union, with four in 10 even saying they would be happy to see Jeremy Corbyn inside Number 10 if it meant leaving."
https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/list-of-economic-self-harm-caused-by-brexit-reaches-1000-entries-291251/
Going further back, Austerity was accepted as a necessary sacrifice by Conservative grassroots voters, Labour centrists and business leaders as an acceptable sacrifice, in 2010 and again in 2015, 2017 and 2019, in spite of the fact that the basis for it was a lie, and in spite of the immense social harms it caused.

Even as a series of UN Human Rights report made it plain that disabled people in England were being harmed, and their Human Rights being undermined, the 'sacrifice' was accepted by voters and the right wing media. Others paid the price, carried the cost. That is the nature of sacrifice - those who promote it do not make it.

Incompetence as a mask
None of this is 'incompetence', even through many will make that attribution, especially those who do not realise the abusers are genuinely capable of such cruelty. Johnson is not incompetent, his action has been quite deliberate.

The action of the abuser is deliberate. It is intentional action designed to cause harm. The veil of 'incompetence' is accepted and often designed to pre-empt the mergence of social solidarity - if and when the population as a whole really understands what is being done, then solidarity across diverse positions within the population will emerge. 
Thus seeding divisions along logical fallacy lines of 'thinking', encouraging and exacerbating bigotry and hatreds within the population is both strategic in the long term and tactical in the short term - the aim is to protect and enhance the Power of those who are abusing the Power of the State, and more, by deflection.
This is the reality of English Government Covid Policy. It is deliberate.
Democracy and regulation of pathocracy.
Protecting a population from the harms of unregulated violent power of any kind is the core purpose of healthy democracy.

Steve Taylor writes about this in The Psychologist article.
"Since there does appear to be a link between the dark triad traits and political power, surely the attainment of political power needs to be more strictly regulated. Or to put it more neutrally, since ruthless, narcissistic people with a lack of empathy and conscience seem to be attracted to positions of power, surely we should take some measures to restrict their access to power?

To an extent, this has always been the purpose of democracy. As Ian Hughes (2018) points out in his book Disordered Minds, the aim of democracy is to try to protect the mass of people from disordered authoritarian leaders. This is why, as Hughes also points out, authoritarian leaders with psychopathic or narcissistic traits distrust democracy. Once in power, they do their utmost to dismantle and discredit democratic institutions, including the independence of institutions and the freedom and legitimacy of the press. Moreover, such leaders are unable to comprehend the principles of democracy, since they regard themselves as superior, and see life as a competitive struggle in which the most ruthless deserve to dominate others. Any of this sounding familiar in a UK context?"
Source: https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-34/november-2021/problem-pathocracy  written by Steve Taylor.

Christmas, a break and a chance to think about a reassessment.
This Christmas, as we spend time with family, as students, teachers, health workers and carers, as brothers and sisters, as grand parents and grand children, as neighbours passing card to one another we will share the love, we will be kind, and within that context, of human kindness and solidarity, perhaps we can also spend a little time looking at this, be more willing to gently face the truth, with collective kindness in mind, and then we could also start to build a union of grass roots people, good, decent people especially students, parents and teachers, who ought by right be concerned with evidence based policy deliberations, for that surely is the base of all genuine learning and indeed,

Healthy Democracy extends beyond voting for loyalty or party.

We can steer towards policy, away from party loyalties, and identify as people and communities who care for one another, who value autonomy in harmony with empathy for one another, who live with diversity and compassion and want to nurture all our communities, and who want to protect all our children.  Yours and mine, and theirs.
We must organise to take the Power away from the bullies, for they are few, and they are causing great harm, and we are a multitude of really good people - it is we who have done most to reduce the spread of the virus, it is we who have born the costs.
As Steve Taylor writes:
"Once they possess power, pathocrats usually devote themselves to entrenching, increasing and protecting their power, with scant regard for the welfare of others. However, Lobaczewski also noted that pathocracies never become permanent. 
At some point, they are destined to fail, because their brutality and lack of moral principles are not shared by the majority of the population, who possess empathy and conscience. "
Please remember this, even if hope seems fragile, even as the harms pile up, even as exhaustion sets in.  The dominance of the pathological is not in evitable, nor is it an inherent setting of the Human condition.
Another way to frame it is to see the situation as a domestic abuse situation, scaled up to a Nation : roles and dynamics in one are seen in the other. I wrote this blog drawing on that analogy, to give a brief over view of the roles played by various entities and groups, exploring the dynamics of the current situation.
https://dwylcorneilius.blogspot.com/2020/07/this-is-abuse-relationship-dynamic.html
As good neighbours we can help to confront the situation, when we are aware, well informed, interested, engaged and working together. 
This article from the Waging Non Violence website shows what can be done, even in the most difficult situations. We in England need a constitution, and legislation that prevents the rise of bullies and grifters through the ranks of mostly decent hard working people who really want to govern healthfully and with empathy.
https://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/01/how-swedes-and-norwegians-broke-the-power-of-the-1-percent/
"While many of us are working to ensure that the Occupy movement will have a lasting impact, it’s worthwhile to consider other countries where masses of people succeeded in non-violently bringing about a high degree of democracy and economic justice. Sweden and Norway, for example, both experienced a major power shift in the 1930s after prolonged nonviolent struggle. They “fired” the top 1 percent of people who set the direction for society and created the basis for something different.
Both countries had a history of horrendous poverty. When the 1 percent was in charge, hundreds of thousands of people emigrated to avoid starvation. Under the leadership of the working class, however, both countries built robust and successful economies that nearly eliminated poverty, expanded free university education, abolished slums, provided excellent health care available to all as a matter of right and created a system of full employment. Unlike the Norwegians, the Swedes didn’t find oil, but that didn’t stop them from building what the latest CIA World Factbook calls “an enviable standard of living.”

It can be done, Together we can do this, May you have a nurturing Solstice and mid-winter or mid-summer holiday where ever you are on this beautiful Earth. 

Solidarity! 

Project for Peace and Justice : Mission Statement

Green Party : Manifesto

Open Democracy : Through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, we seek to educate citizens to challenge power and encourage democratic debate across the world.

Good Law Project : using the Courts and The Law to hold Power to account.

Kindest regards

Corneilius

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