(Zero Hedge)—Discussions on collapse often turn to signs and signals – The economy, politics and social tensions have become increasingly unstable for many years now, and much like adding more and more weight to a man standing on a frozen lake, eventually the ice is going to break. The question is, how do we know when that moment will be?
As cultural systems begins to dissolve due to political clashes and economic decline the real evil tends to slither out of the woodwork. It happens slowly at first, then all at once. A sure sign of accelerating collapse is the growing prevalence of psychopaths and psychopathic behavior in the open.
The US appears to have entered the middle stages of such a collapse with many sociopaths and psychopaths beginning to feel that they might be able to act out their worst impulses without consequences. They are beginning to test the waters to see what they can get away with.
In the past ten years there has been a dramatic uptick in mass violence and theft. With the advent of social media it is now easier than ever for spontaneously planned riots to form with little warning, and in most cases these mobs are random in who and what they attack. They might organize in the name of politics or activism, but they tend to lash out at whatever targets are closest or easiest rather than the people they blame for their travails.
In most cases these events result in simple property destruction in urban areas, but more and more there has been an underlying and aggressive impulse to hurt people. There will come a time very soon when the the goal is not just to steal or vandalize, but to use instability as a smokescreen; a distraction the provides opportunities to harm others.
Psychopaths like to exploit the chaos of political turmoil to indulge their violent tendencies, or to convince others to do the same. If no one acts to eliminate the first wave of criminal actions during a social breakdown, then thousands of other criminals will also move to take advantage. The first wave becomes an avalanche, all because the system no longer provides sufficient incentives to behave.
The root psychology is hard to explain, but look at it this way – Imagine a spoiled toddler is kept in check by his parents in the pristine halls of a delicate museum. The toddler might throw fits, screaming and shouting because he wants to touch the many fragile items around him, but at least his parents are there to hold him back. He has not yet learned the responsibility and maturity necessary to have access to these treasures. Now imagine removing the parents entirely and telling the toddler there are no rules anymore?
The rush of joy he experiences is exhilarating; it is the feeling of sudden and unearned power. No one is around to stop him, therefore, he is going to test his own limits. He sees the ordered environment around him and he becomes frustrated. How dare this place restrict him with boundaries and structure. His first inclination is to destroy anything that he can get his hands on.
Now understand that there is a portion of any given adult population that has these same tendencies. They never grew up. They want to take or destroy what they cannot have; they are only waiting for the opportunity to do so without repercussions.
At this phase of a breakdown when the dominoes begin to topple, law enforcement generally folds and retreats, leaving the public with no first line of defense. Gangs and looters organize quickly and take territory rather than just taking people’s possessions. Organized crime at the local level leads to large scale death and minimal opposition. People are so isolated and busy trying to scrape together a meager economic lifeline that they have no time or motivation to fight back.
The point of no return comes when regular people are afraid to leave their homes. Organization at the neighborhood level with an aggressive posture must be enacted or the most vicious attacks will be visited on the population.
Sometimes, though, the psychopaths we have to deal with during a collapse are within the very government that is supposed to protect our liberties. This is a situation in which the criminals are given license to use violence against the citizenry through the illusion of law. The populace is then confronted with the inevitable question – Are laws worth following when psychopaths write them?
When corrupt people run government, good becomes evil and evil becomes good. Consider the extreme double standards in place between the treatment of leftist activist mobs and conservative protesters. Look at the government and media response to the BLM riots versus their response to the Jan 6 event. In the case of the capitol “riots”, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas into the otherwise peaceful crowd, then when the protesters reacted violently, they were accused of “insurrection.”
Is there any example of this kind of setup used against the political left? No. Instead, the media and public officials describe the destructive mobs as “fiery but mostly peaceful.”
The double standard is absurd, but then again, it’s meant to be. Why? Because the psychopaths among the political left were being rewarded and encouraged. Conservatives and moderates are supposed to feel defeated, making them unwilling to fight back any longer. These are the kinds of conditions that fuel unhinged and predatory people, unleashing them on the population.
When psychopaths feel protected, total upheaval quickly follows.
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Spot on assessment. Well said.
From a biblical perspective it can be summarized in three words: absence of conscience.
Such individuals with extremely seared conscience do indeed tend to work their way to the top because, in part, we live in a “society” that considers such lack of conscience to be a strength rather than a weakness. Good people tend to throw up their hands and say that’s it, I can’t go any further, I can’t hold back the vomit any longer. But one with no conscience, which psychology would call a psychopath, doesn’t have that problem. There’s little to nothing they can’t stomach.
Right, the restraining force on that child when the parents leave the museum is the conscience.
As long as “society” continues in sin, celebrating wickedness and condemning righteousness, rewarding that lack of conscience, while punishing those who still have one, then it should come as no shock to anyone that those who have no conscience will rise to positions of power and influence.
Nowadays it’s even worse. One not only has to sear the conscience in order to improve his circumstances, but in many cases must do so just to survive and put food on the table. That’s not the case with any and all who have succeeded any more than it is the case with any and all who failed. The absence of conscience isn’t dependent on income or wealth. But generally, in the overall big picture, it is very true, as I see things.
There is only one escape from the consequences of sin, and that is repentance. Maybe it might be a good idea to quit feeding and rewarding the psychopathic lack of conscience, while punishing, extorting, and pressuring those who have a conscience to follow suit in order to survive. Maybe it might make sense to quit creating psychopaths in the first place, but i’m no “expert” what do I know.
Of course, if you want to know what’s going to happen, just for the sake of return on investment, and you also have no conscience, then that’s easy. Pick up a Bible, study where things are headed, what it will be like in the last days, and invest accordingly. Hey, if you can guess what the mark of the beast will be, then you could possibly become a quadrillionaire. You’ll still die and face the judgment, just as naked and broke as you were born, but you’ll have no shortage of temporal wealth in between.
Nobody can hedge judgement, the consequences of sin, or out-maneuver almighty God. As Jesus said, at some point you’ve got to consider where you want to lay up your treasures. In what do you want to invest. The eternal, or the temporal.
But in any event, as I read and understand the scripture, before the complete and total collapse happens, the antichrist will step onto the stage and appear to solve the world’s problems. We’re steamrolling toward collapse on global scale, picking up speed each day, but at some point the antichrist is going to step in and appear to save the day, and he do so in a manner that will appear to out-maneuver God, avoid the consequences of sin, and continue to reward wickedness, punish righteousness, and destroy the conscience.
There are accounts all throughout scripture where people thought they were getting away with it for a time, but in the end the consequences were unavoidable. For a time, and maybe even what we consider to be a long time, it’ll appear mankind is getting away with it. But he never does. And that’s the way it works because that’s the way God made it work.
But of course if we talk about this stuff, then they see us as the “psychopathic” control freaks. It’s going to have to run its course. Sometimes mankind just has to learn the hard way, and I believe this time coming is most likely the last time.
Of course, a strong and good conscience is also significantly informed by a knowledge of the absolute truth. If one is a moral relativist, who’s morals change every time the wind blows, and who’s idea of right and wrong is determined by how they feel any given moment, then they too have a seared conscience. Along with that lack of conscience is always the sin of pride. There’s always arrogance. And the Bible conveyed these truths long before psychologists ever “discovered” them. It described psychopathy centuries ago. Modern science is way behind.
Nowadays they don’t even want people with a strong conscience. We’re seen as indignant, trouble-making, and so on. And much of the DEI mess, as it relates to sin, is tailored to eliminating and filtering out those with a conscience. The same goes for the political profession, and just about every profession, unfortunately including the ministry in many cases these days, given how far the church has fallen away.
And it goes back years, just with different names. I can remember decades ago sitting through training sessions where the instructor talked about changing the paradigm, in essence saying if you want to work here then you’re going to have to sear your conscience.
But the truth is we are all guilty. I can look back at times in my own life when I took stances on issues that were contrary to scripture, that essentially justified and rewarded wickedness, while condemning and punishing righteousness. Times when I myself fed the destruction of conscience, including my own. And any who says he hasn’t sinned is a liar. Aside from young children, every last one of us bears a portion of responsibility and blame.
But if this is the time I think it is, then the total and complete crash is not going to happen. What will happen will be far worse than collapse. And it’s going to be global.
And of course, in many ways psychology itself is to blame. It’s rare that people go for counseling because they want to hear “that’s your conscience talking, and you’d better listen.” And for the psychologist, such one sentence cures are not exactly good for job security. Those of us who have a conscience know that a violated conscience can cause significant distress, including physical distress. And much of modern psychology is directed toward treating that distress as the problem, rather than the violation of conscience that caused it. And the goal then becomes how to silence and sear the conscience even more. The psychologist will essentially say “I want you to succeed” and climb that ladder, so I’m going to help you learn how to hold back that vomit. And at that point it’s more about how to maneuver through and increasingly wicked society, trying to hold society together as they see fit, and less about real mental health. They love to talk about what’s “normal”, and contrast that against mental illness – which is an irrational assumption right out of the gate. Statistics are a core part of psychology. They love bell curves. Most of them these days are atheists and humanists.
I’m not sure there is any other profession in existence that is more to blame for the destruction of conscience.