Blog 5: Wisdom of Psychopaths Analysis 11/6/16

I thought this piece was very interesting and promoted claims that I've never thought of before. It concentrated on both sides of psychopathy. Society tends to have a negative denotation of a psychopath. If someone does something incredibly insensitive, one might call them a psychopath. Even the root word is often seen as an insult to demean someone else: "psycho." Movies, exactly labeled "Psycho," have been changing the denotation of psychopath for decades. This article sheds light on what psychopathy really is. Using logos, the piece brings up bomb-disposal operatives, highly important people who prevent terrorism and brutal murder by deactivating bombs. The studies mentioned show that many bomb operatives experience a drop in heart rate while they are doing their nerve-wrecking jobs. This is a key characteristic of a psychopath: a laser focus during stressful tasks. "...There are individuals whose basic biology is so fundamentally- different that curiosly and subconsciously, they remain impermeable to the minutest trace of anxiety antigens." This might take someone by surprise. "Aren't all psychopaths cold-blooded killers?" The answer is a concrete no. The piece argues psychopaths have wisdom, "innate, ineffable function of their being." Surely, our bomb experts are heroes. They prevent catastrophes, and are mentally tough enough to do it ten times over. The minority of psychopaths that are killers is just like any other minority out there. Extremists in every religion and racist cops don't paint the entire picture of religion or police department. Why should killer psychopaths? The bad, sadly, outweighs the good most of the time. It is easy to see a spot of dirt on a white canvas than a spot of white on a dirty canvas. The focus is mostly put on the instances of murder, not the instances where neurosurgeons and bomb experts save lives. This is what backs up the main claim of the text: "Psychopathy is a double-edged sword that inevitably cuts both ways." During our podcast, my group mentioned that there was no pathos in this piece. Ironically, if there was, any psychopath reading it wouldn't understand it. Lastly, I'd like to finish off with a controversial claim that was mentioned on the last page of the piece. After defining psychopathy as a double-edged sword, the writer then labels those edges as psychopathy and antipsychopathy. The killers and slashers on one hand, and tibetan monks and saints on the other. I really liked this claim. With anti meaning opposite, the writer argues that everything is part of the same spectrum, no matter how long or wide that spectrum is. It sums up that we are all human beings, and a lack of empathy, or an overabundance, does not take away our humanity. Psychopaths should not be singled out, and they are a very important part of our society.