SLSL Succession of the Criminally Insane (was Has anyone seen a Pynchon book lately?)

[vze422fs at verizon.net]

on 2/7/03 1:51 PM, davemarc at davemarc at panix.com wrote:

>> <<"(...) that succession of the criminally insane who
>> have enjoyed power since 1945.">>
>> 
> This is actually a favorite of mine, valid considering the activities and
> mindsets of world leadership in this post-Holocaust, post-Hiroshima era of
> rocketry.  And, coincidentally, it's also consistent with what Kurt Vonnegut
> has said and written recently about "psychopathic personalities" or "smart,
> personable people who have no conscience" who enjoy power. (I think it may
> be very significant that Pynchon chose the word "enjoy" rather than "held.")
> 
> "P.Ps," Vonnegut states, "are fully aware of how much suffering their
> actions will inflict on others but do not care.  They cannot care."
> 
> He continues:  "The classic medical text about how such attractive leaders
> bring us into unspeakable calamities is 'The Mask of Sanity' by Dr. Hervey
> Cleckley."
> 
> Elsewhere Vonnegut describes a scenario that reminds me of Frenesi's dilemma
> in Vineland:  "Again, as Cleckley says, these people are around and do rise.
> Women are attracted to them.  I mean, this is a defect, but women are
> attracted to them because they are so confident.  They really don't give a
> fuck what happens--not even to themselves.  But this is a serious defect
> and, no, we haven't been invaded and conquered by Martians.  We have been
> conquered by psychopathic personalities who are attractive."
> 
> d.
> 
> 
See Erich Fromm's "The Sane Society".