The Wisdom of Psychopaths

The Wisdom of psychopaths is the title of a book by Kevin Dutton which is well worth dipping into when the frustrations of life appear too challenging, and you’re left wondering why?

I’ve had another missive from the shire, another communication without content, statement of fact without foundation, another query unresolved. For now.

Why would they do that?

Why do we have bureaucratic organisations that cost us a lot of money and appear to work against the majority of the people?

Why would society have organised itself this way?

The truth is that there is no such thing as society, which is what the British Prime Minister, the late Mrs Thatcher used to say. And in the context she used those words she was correct. Society may appear to behave in certain ways, and we can have focus groups, polls, surveys, and all manner of social science tools to determine the social trends and norms of the group we call society, but the bottom line is that unless individuals engage in behaviours then those behaviours will not occur.

Society is a useful term to create a category, but we must always be mindful that it is a fluid entity and not a concrete concept.

This fluidity is true in every group, however large or small, they are all under the influence of both bottom-up and top-down pressures that constantly shape them. The top person can try to dictate the shape of society, by making rules, policies and plans, but the individuals have free will and often they refuse to cow to a tyrant. An example recently was the ill-conceived notion of the government reneging on the solar energy agreements that they had entered into with thousands of WA householders. Colin Barnet was displaying a complete lack of empathy with others, typical of the psychopath; and he quickly realised that society can fight back.

So we must bear this in mind when we are talking about “the shire.” We will all have our own perceptions based on the interactions and exchanges we have had with this particular local government organisation. Most of us will, in casual conversations when not under oath, use the term “the shire” in a very loose way to mean the whole local government entity, shire administration plus our elected councillors.

When we are amazed at something the shire does; say for example, they gave a not-for profit community group called the Chamber of Commerce some of our rates money as a community grant for the purpose of holding a dinner event at the Augusta Hotel, how would we react? We might ask why?

Why would “they” do that?

Are they showing the lack of empathy so typical of the psychopath?

Now before you all scream “unfair” and “unkind” let me make it clear that only a tiny proportion of psychopaths are lurking in dark alleyways waiting to do something grizzly and fatal. Most of them are manipulating society and making a lot of money from the workers.

I confess to having many of the indicators of psychopathology in my own profile, ruthlessness, charm (some might find this one hard to believe), focus, mental toughness, fearlessness, mindfulness (living in the moment), and action (less now than back in the day...). The difficulty comes when people are unable to decrease or moderate their use of those character traits to vary their response in different situations.

The profession most likely to display strong psychopathic indicators is CEO, closely followed by Lawyer, Media executive, Salesperson, Surgeon, etc. The culture and character of an organisation is determined by the CEO, and having psychopathic tendencies can be a real boon to those who have to take on responsibility for big decisions. Or it can be a curse.

Psychopaths distance themselves from any responsibility, their language will show this. They speak weasel fluently and can often bamboozle the unwary into believing that they have been treated fairly when in fact they have merely been duped.

The difficulty in dealing with a psychopathic organisation is that the CEO will usually fill all senior positions with people of a similar mindset.

Take the example of this shire back when James Trail was CEO. He systematically cleared the planning department of all staff who did not conform to his requirements. Matt Riorden was marched off the premises when he apparently resigned after just a few months working at the shire, and was immediately reported to the CCC, who subsequently found nothing untoward, and Mr Riorden was totally exonerated. Did he jump or was he pushed? In October 2004 the situation was so bad that Sandra Boulter, Statutory Planning and Development Director, wrote to every shire in the state asking if they would lend us a planning officer. Then in April 2005 a Local Government Review, in a rather understated comment, noted that the shire had difficulty recruiting and retaining staff. Three months after this report landed on his desk James Trail sacked Sandra Boulter herself. Here was a man whose Planning Department was decimated, permanent staff reduced to just one person and heavily dependent on contractors.

Ask why?

Ms Boulter had commented on the massive problem the shire had with non-compliance issues, illegal developments, residential properties being converted to tourism accommodation, and similar issues. Were these comments a reason for her departure? Or maybe her departure was less to do with her, and more to do with who James Trail could have in her place if he sacked her?

Remember psychopaths are manipulative, and that James Trail was the CEO recently reported to the CCC by Kalamunda Shire.

What of our current administration, with Gary Evershed at the helm since 2008, are they offering a better service to the community than we experienced under James Trail’s stewardship?

I suggest not much has changed.

When I complained about the shire writing to the media to denigrate my character, and provide false witness statements indicating that I was lying, all I received was a letter from Mr Evershed saying that he thought the shire communications with the media were made unintentionally and that any apology he was prepared to make would have to be confidential. I had borne the brunt of a PR and Marketing Manager writing to the media and he thought any apology should be kept confidential.

Are these weasel words masquerading as an apology?

Is the sub-text here that he did not genuinely believe that I deserved an apology. He had no empathy with how a spokesperson for a community group might feel when they are unfairly dubbed a liar to the local media.

Ask why he thought the actions of the shire were unintentional?

Could he really have believed that the shire PR and Marketing Manager hadn’t intended to write the emails about me? She hadn’t intended to tell lies? Mr Evershed found nothing untoward in this, which leaves me to ask – how many other people have they issued covert media statements about? Is it a common occurence?

The double whammy for those of us wishing to live democratically is that many people seeking to hold office as a councillor may also be psychopaths, and if they aren’t they will cope badly with the shire culture. When Jenny McGregor went on the ABC she also contradicted everything I had said about the inappropriate development in Karridale, she was totally supportive of the position the shire had taken. But she was wrong on so many levels that we must ask – why?

Why did she react so impulsively as to telephone the radio station and launch into an attack without waiting to check any of her facts.

ABC SW Interview

The radio station had the facts, they had a copy of the strategy I was complaining about; they could read “250 lots”; they could read that the development was predicated on a demand for “investment/second holiday homes”; they had already heard Roger Underwood, from the Bushfire Front, speaking about the build up of fuel loads throughout the shire in 2011; and they understood the social issues of FIFO workers in rural areas that rely on volunteers.

The only part of Jenny’s interview that the ABC could not easily verify was the matter of “workshops” she claimed to have knowledge of. The shire planning officers have written to the Karridale Progress Association to advise that the workshops originally scheduled were not held, no reason has been given community consultation was just taken out of the project. Maybe Jenny was confusing what she thought ought to happen with reality, or possibly she confused a visit to the pub with a community consultation workshop. We will only ever know if she tells us.

One thing was for certainly on the psychopathology scale she was more of a pit-bull than a cobra. Pit-bull psychopaths are more likely to be emotionally volatile and more prone to letting things fester, and then flying off the handle, they are also likely to adopt the role of victim, and can just occasionally feel some guilt. On the other hand cobra psychopaths will attack swiftly and ferociously but all the while they remain calm and focused, and feel little if any remorse, and always retain feelings of superiorority.

I’m minded to post a suggestion as to how we might overcome the negative psychopathology of the shire and harness all the positive energy and benefits of those traits for the good of the community.