Victor Davis Hanson posted a wonderful piece at National Review Online yesterday entitled, “Just Make Stuff Up,” in which he gives a skillful summary of Obama’s broken promises, flip-flops and outright lies. But he just doesn’t seem to know how to put his finger on the explanation for the problem. This is it: Obama is a sociopath and therefore has no core self and no conscience that would require him to be consistent. He cannot be true to himself because there is no one there. This is what allows him to “just make stuff up” because the only reason he ever says anything is to get people to do what he wants. The easiest way to do that is to tell them what they want to hear, so he does, with no intention of delivering on his promises.
I explain this more in the following posts:
Let me say it again: a sociopath’s sole purpose when making a promise is to get something in the easiest and most pleasant way. There is NO INTENT TO KEEP THE PROMISE!!!
Indeed, once the promise has achieved its purpose, if you try to make the sociopath deliver his side of the bargain, you will generally get one or both of two responses. First, delay and fog – you’ll get what was promised, at some time in the future, but only if you do even more of what the sociopath wants, with tiny rewards applied whenever you start to lose faith, as the sociopath leads you on toward an ever-receding goal.
“The chilling explanation of why Obama is cool”
Much is made of Obama’s so-called cool and calm demeanor and how this makes him superior to ordinary mortals who get emotional about stuff, and how this means he clearly has magic powers to keep all of his contradictory and often mutually-exclusive promises because if he didn’t, why, then we would know because he’d act all nervous about what will happen when the jig is finally up and the chickens have come home to roost.
Well, besides Obama’s success in rigging the game in every possible way so that he comes out on top no matter what, so he doesn’t have to be nervous, there’s this: he is missing the vital faculty that would allow him to be nervous and have emotions other than anger, rage, gloating and glee.
Obama does not have a conscience.
God help me, and of all people, Ann Coulter spotted this first in her column, “Obama’s Dimestore ‘Mein Kampf’.”
“Why ridicule is Obama’s Kryptonite“:
[Eric] Hoffer explains on p. 138 [of his book, The True Believer] how the media are able to create the grounds for a fanatical mass movement like Obama’s:
It is easy to see how the faultfinding man of words, by persistent ridicule and denunciation, shakes prevailing beliefs and loyalties, and familiarizes the masses with the idea of change. What is not so obvious is the process by which the discrediting of existing beliefs and institutions makes possible the rise of a new fanatical faith. For it is a remarkable fact that the militant man of words who “sounds the established order to its source to mark its want of authority and justice” often prepares the ground not for a society of freethinking individuals but for a corporate society that cherishes utmost unity and blind faith.
Interestingly, a friend of mine who had a career as a psychiatric nurse offered the same diagnosis for Bill Clinton.
Her opinion of W was that the man was a brain-damaged recovering coke addict.
Oddly, she read BHO’s books and (I suspect) is in love with her mental image of the man.
So you omit political discussion and concentrate on loving someone.
Your blog is very refreshing. I too consider myself a conservative.
Like yourself, I too saw the dangers of Obama as president. It seemed to me like the election was set up to make history more than picking a leader for our country. I believe that McCain just droppped the towel at the end of the election then, set the wolves on Palin. Palin came out very strong in the Republican convention. So strong that if she ran for president I would definitely vote for her.
Obama makes friends with our enemies and, disrespects our allies.
This is why Kim in Korea is doing what he wants. We have no leadership in our country . What we have is a guy who has no experience and, is just doing whatever he wants.
Our country is at risk for attacks. His ideas of who is the enemy is insane. The military personnel is considered a security risk?
Gitmo is closing and terrorist are being shipped all over the place.
G*d help us all.
Regards,
Millie
Dear Cynthia,
I happened upon your blog today, and must say bless you! Like yourself, I’m a recovering liberal (well, a moderate Dem, but still …) but also a middle-aged woman returning to college. I’m studying cognitive neuroscience, and have had all the requisite soc and psych classes. So I can’t BELIEVE I missed the obvious; you are quite correct in calling Obama a sociopath, in the classical sense no less. I will say that starting about this time last year, I told my husband we were watching the ascendency of the most dangerous man in America. On that, at least, I wasn’t wrong; although heaven help me, I wish I would’ve been. Please keep up the good work!
ElephantTotemGirl,
Thank you! Charles Krauthammer is an M.D. and psychiatrist and right after the election was at a private dinner where Obama poured on the charm. Over the next few days, Dr. Krauthammer said even HE was in the tank for Obama. However, he got out pretty fast since it is his job to match words to deeds and as a sociopath, Obama’s don’t match up. Since you are taking psych classes, be sure to watch the news story I linked in one of my posts linked in this post. The critical moment is when the man who has faked his credentials is being forced to explain why he lied. He goes from being very sweet and charming — “you shouldn’t mind that I lied because I had to lie to get what I wanted” — to furious and bullying — “you are a bad person for objecting to my lies!” Obama goes back and forth like that all the time, although for him it’s less fury and more contemptuous arrogance. Idealistic people and courteous people are the ones most easily bullied by Obama. The idealistic ones believe his slogans and fall for the false claim they are racists if they don’t do everything he says and get him anything he wants. The courteous ones have a hard time setting boundaries for him, since he tramples boundaries.
I only call someone a sociopath when I perceive they meet the clinical standards for that diagnosis. I NEVER use the term in the sense of “someone who disagrees with me whom I want to denigrate.”
Keep in touch because I will be interested to hear from you in my posts about brain damage and obstructive sleep apnea.
Cynthia