Is El Paso run by sociopaths?

According to this blog on the website PsychCentral.com, here are six defining characteristics of sociopaths:

Six Signs of a Sociopath

    Behaves in harsh and/or hurtful ways, and then expects you to have no reaction; to act like it never happened.

    Manipulates others, either from the sidelines or directly.

    Treats you very differently at different times or different days, for no apparent reason.

    Lies easily when needed to get herself off the hook.

    Externalizes blame. The sociopath does not take ownership or blame for his mistakes or misdeeds.

    At times, appears to actually enjoy manipulating and/or hurting others.

Maybe politician and sociopath are interchangeable terms. But what about our shadow government? The wheels calling the shots?

Here’s what writer Paul Rosenburg said in an article on Salon.com:

“These are the people who did not go to their kid’s soccer games. These are borderline sociopathic people and they don’t care about other people,” [venture capitalist Nick] Hanauer said, to which [the host of All in with Chris] Hayes responded, “I don’t want to diagnose anyone from afar, I just want to stipulate.” That’s an honorable, well-meaning liberal sentiment. But it’s a bit misplaced, particularly since it meant a missed opportunity for deeper understanding. The point isn’t to stigmatize any one particular individual, but to identify and arm ourselves against a pervasive, corrosive mindset. It’s a mindset devoid of empathy or conscience, for whom other people simply are not real, a mindset that has gripped us collectively, ever more tightly, over the past 30 to 40 years, regardless of how much mayhem it creates, as the richest 1 percent has roughly tripled its share of income, while the rest of us, collectively, have seen our incomes stagnate, despite rising productivity, year after year after year.

The rest of the article links the intrusion of sociopathy into modern American business practices.

Like Mr. Hayes, I, also, don’t want to diagnose from afar. I’m just trying to understand how some people, who profess to be well-meaning, continue to contribute to El Paso’s collective economic malaise.

Do our local kingpins and their political sock puppets really think we need an arena downtown? Who will benefit from that?

Not Joe Sixpack, struggling to get food on his family’s table in his shack in suburbia.

Only, possibly, the downtown real estate speculators.

When apartments get built downtown, it’s not because El Paso needs more apartments for an influx of young professionals enthralled by Triple A baseball. When new bars open downtown, it’s not because the older bars were overrun with thirsty patrons languishing over empty glasses. El Paso’s overall economy hasn’t improved a whit.

El Paso needs to focus on the fundamentals of economic development. Education. Social mobility. Economic justice. Not shiny gewgaws that only benefit the upper class.

6 comments

  1. Yes, yes, and Hell, Yeah! I have been trying to say that we do not need another undersized arena downtown, nor do WE – the residents and citizens of El Paso – need apartments downtown, more bars downtown, or much of anything else! We have pretty much what we need all over town, without the hassle of going that far.
    And, yes indeed, we need to be focusing on education, social mobility, justice, and real jobs, instead of call center/warehouse/clerical positions.

  2. It’s all about that 2011/12/13 influx of Juarenses and a sudden dearth of available rental housing, coupled with increased retail profits due to same. That influx caused starry-eyed profiteering politicians to worm their way into the collective societal woodwork. They are promptly gnawing away at that soft and quick burning foundation while the hundreds of voting and hundreds of thousands of non-voting el paso homeowners foot the bill. Sociopath is too kind a term for these weasels. http://www.deptofnumbers.com/rent/texas/el-paso/

    1. I agree that some of our community leaders saw the influx of people from the Troubles in Juarez and the Fort Bliss expansion and capitalized on it to induce El Pasoans to take on big, useless, projects. I’m not so concerned with capitalists investing their own money in apartments. But those QoL projects are only intended to line the fat cats’ pockets, first through construction fees, and then through real estate gambits.

      But the surge is over. There’s a new reality. We need to adapt to it. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

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