9 million US ruthless sociopaths: and then there are the rest of us

by Monica Davis

Scientists estimate that three percent of the US population are sociopaths.. Given the US population at around 9 million sociopaths looking at the rest of us as prey and playthings. And, if that isn’t scary enough: many of them gravitate to positions of power because they are too ruthless to observe the niceties of decency and politeness.

Take a look at the following chart on banks and employees–and yes, some of those banks no longer exist. If we assume that the general population’s sociopathic population is at 3 percent, as per accepted research, then, in the top 5 banking institutions, we are looking at a possible 26,000 sociopaths in the top tier banks, combined.  

That begs the question: how much damage did these sociopaths do to the economy?  Did they use their positions to wreak havoc on the nation’s economy by manipulating people and policies for their own twisted pleasure?

Martha Stout, a PhD who has long been interested in sociopaths, says they are literally “next door.” And, conscience free. No rules. No boundaries. Nothing viewed as an obstacle to what they want.

Stout writes, “Imagine—if you can—not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your life.”

Imagine being a sociopath—or, even worse, the target of one.

“Whatever your job, you manipulate and bully the people who are under your thumb, as often and as outrageously as you can without getting fired or held accountable. You do this for its own sake, even when it serves no purpose except to give you a thrill. Making people jump means you have power—or this is the way you see it– and bullying provides you with an adrenalinen rush. It is also fun.”

Now, imagine you are a sociopath in a bureaucratic world which discriminates against ethnic minorities, the elderly, disabled and the poor. Imagine you are a police officer, loan officer, child welfare officer or even an elementary teacher. Think of all the power at your fingertips, your own sense of godhood and arrogance, amplified by the institutional bigotry which adds power to your personal sociopath tendencies and actually amplifies and validates them.

You accept no law but your own, except when the law helps you torment others and prey on them. Despite EEOC laws, you use your position to torment minorities, women and the disabled. Regardless of due process, you throw your weight around willy nilly—and target those who can not fight back.

You have the power of being an authority figure: a boss, a teacher, a police officer, parent, doctor, nurse, pastor or priest. For you, your position of authority is a tool to abuse others, and you delight in the rush of adrenaline that pours through your body as you abuse a child in your custody, torment a prisoner in your care, misuse your authority to hire and fire.

Sociopaths have left a wake of human misery behind them for centuries, but, in our era, it seems that there are more of them than ever. For many of us, it’s not Ted Bundy down the street, but Mommy Dearest in your house, who leads the mental mayhem in your life. Thousands of Americans “have been controlled and psychologically shattered by individual human perpetrators, often sociopaths—sometimes sociopathic strangers, but more typically sociopathic parents, older relatives or siblings.”

Stout has an interesting premise: the most danger from sociopaths is not from strangers, not serial killers, or serial rapists.

“…many people know nothing about this disorder, or if they do, they think only inb terns of violent psychopathy—murders, serial killers, mass murderers—people who have conspicuously broken the law many times over, and who, if caught, will be imprisoned, maybe even put to death by our legal system. We are not commonly aware of, nor do we usually identify, the larger number of nonviolent sociopaths among us, people who often are not blatant lawbreakers, and against whom our formal legal system provides little defense.”

In many cases, our formal legal system offers little defense because many of the sociopaths hold positions of power in the legal system or social system of which they are part. “For brief periods, any reasonably clever sociopath can act with saint like niceness for his own manipulative purpose. And people who do possess conscience are often unkind despite themselves.”

Many of the people who hold power over us are sociopaths, “…with no conscience—no intervening sense of obligation based in emotional attachment to others…”

The clean cut white man in a designer suit, “a pillar of his community”, member of the church, civic role model, a sociopath? The nice lady next door who teaches at the elementary school, a sociopath? The grandfatherly owner of a locally owned chain of hardware stores, a sociopath? The loan officer across town at the regional bank branch, a sociopath?

Why not? If there are 9 million of them around, they must be doing something. Going to church on Sunday, cleaning teeth in the dentist’s office, running for District Attorney, or sitting in the governor’s chair.

All too many times, when incidents of sociopathic horror rears its ugly head, we do nothing. Why? Because “our trancelike state…lets us believe that the ones who are dying (or being harmed) are only its (things) anyway.”

Think of the prostitutes who have disappeared over the years. The news media rarely investigates their disappearances and deaths, even when it appears that there is a serial killer at work. Certain demographics—prostitutes, minorities, the poor, are valued less than middle class white Americans, and what happens to them does not rate high on the level of things for the media to report on, or the people to get worried about,

Thus, when unfavored minorities complain of abuse: civil rights threatened, property rights not defended by courts, parental rights at risk from overzealous social workers—they are its and rights are not worth defending.

The most horrible thing to happen in this country is the time when a predator’s need to prey finds favor in bureaucratic bigotry and official policy. When police officers beat down blacks, Hispanics or other unfavored minorities for fun because they know they can get away with it. Or, when sociopathic loan officers can forge documents, steal identities, conduct unlawful foreclosures and ruin the lives of their “clients” and “customers” because those customers are unfavored minorities, or voiceless consumers whose rights are not valued or upheld.

The Ted Bundy’s of this world are dangerous. But so are the Bob Bureaucrats, the Father Joes and Officer Smiths. It’s just a matter of when he strikes and who he preys on. One of his victims could be you.

Given our collapsing economy, you are already a victim.