The Dark Triad of Psychological Evil

What do Adolf Hitler, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem (among others past and present) have in common?

So, if you get through the first part of this post I promise to include a finale related to the topic of greed, which I put out there previously. I might also touch on heroism, if my mind holds steady enough to hop from lily pad to lily pad. (Ribbit.)

I’ve been thinking a LOT about this triad, which Brian Klass and other sophisticated observers of politics has been reviewing in the light of current events. The Dark Triad is a form of the deep psych archetype of ‘the Shadow’ (see previous posts for more on this) and also of the Native American traditional form of this tendency, which they called ‘wapiti.’ So first my take on Dr. Klass’s formulation of the Triad, important because his data strongly suggests that politicians are around 25 times as likely to suffer from this malignant personality disorder as the general population. That’s right: twenty-five unbelievable times as likely. The disorder is a toxic combination of narcissistic personality disorder, psychopathy, and what he calls Machiavellian traits or tendencies. The poster boy for that last one is doubtless Stephen Miller, as a Machiavellian is ‘sneaky, cunning, and lacking a moral code.’ If the shoe fits.

I suspect that by now every thinking person in American knows what narcissism and psychopathy are, as they have been endlessly discussed with regard to the current occupant of the White House, Not-My-President Trump. But a quick and dirty review: narcissists are weak people who overcompensate for their fears of their own weakness by stoking a massively inflated self-image (Trump’s constant harping on the biggest, the best, the most stable genius, etc.) and demanding that others reinforce that image with loyal and admiring behavior, aka ‘narcissistic goods.’ A political rally would provide this in spades. A psychopathic personality would lack understanding of normal human emotions, especially including love, empathy and compassion. In place of these s/he embraces, basically, the seven deadly sins of pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth/extreme laziness. (Sound familiar?)

I think the first two of the Triad Trump manifests in spades. Machiavellianism, on the other hand, might be somewhat less developed in his character, possibly because his attention deficit problems and age-related cognitive decline make him somewhat less able to engage in the kind of under-the-radar long range planning that characterizes Machiavellians. He also lacks patience, which they also excel in. Some of you might have read or heard about the original Machiavelli, who was an Italian author and adviser to the despots of his day, having authored the perennial best-seller The Prince. Written in 1513, a year in which the prince-like Doges (!) of Italian city states like Venice, Genoa and Florence, it’s been a guide to insider politics for centuries. It’s all about how to get, wield and hold power, and includes a lot of advice about how to manipulate people to achieve these ends.

Many of Trump’s top advisors are high on this index. Especially the authors of Project 25. Additionally, his backers among the petroleum and tech billionaires, etc. etc., are Machiavellians: ditto. I suspect Elon Musk is one, too, as his DOGE scam was all about grabbing valuable data for his personal and corporate use, and disarming the watchdogs who might dissuade him from malfeasance across his corporate empire as well. A perfect play.

Scary, no? A person ‘on the Triad’ will be superficially charming, as manipulative persuasion is a main tool to gain power. This runs the gamut from a disorganized narcissistic psychopath like Ted Bundy who was quite successful in luring young women to fall into his various traps, to any of your more enduring elected officials. Not all of them, but way, way too many. A narcissist basically deludes himself or herself into thinking he is better than everyone else, which serves as permission to con ‘the suckers and losers.’

A person living within the Dark Triad cares nothing about others, only himself or herself. That much must be obvious. I’m pretty sure that any and all dictators and other autocrats are bent that way. Which is why we must not ever be conned into falling for what they promise. They ‘lie like a dog.’ (Appologies to my canine friends and companions, past and present.) And they don’t get it about themselves, which brings me around to The Shadow.

The Shadow is the unconscious, rejected parts of ourselves, all rolled into one. We actively repress knowledge of it, and tend to ‘project’ or see them in others, as the images keep breaking through and have to go somewhere, I guess. This is one of the most powerful roots of racism, sexism, ageism, your-favorite-isms. If you can’t see or admit your own, say laziness (Remember good-old ‘sloth’?) you think black and brown people are lazy. Ditto dishonest, ditto rapists, ditto dangerous insurrectionists, in the case of You-Know-Who. Similarly, you think women are weak, easily manipulated, and vain. (Hmmm.)

Wapiti, which in some ways encompasses all of the above, was conceived of by our First Peoples as a kind of mental virus that, as all of us are connected at some quantum level according to their understanding, Wapiti can spread among us on that level. I find it interesting that this resembles the modern concept of mass or crowd hysteria in some respects, and also trauma bonding among the members of dysfunctional families, in additional respects.

Whew. I am tired. While writing this I also just fed a new mother doe who I actively discourage from noshing on my flower bed by distracting her with apples. I have mixed feelings about doing this, but here in the city, the deer are almost always skinny and at risk. And a fact of life. Her eyes are so big and brown. So I’m a libtard, I guess. At any rate, I yell and wave my arms if she as much as looks at the flower beds after her treat, and she obligingly moves off, hopefully eating a bit less as she moves off toward my neighbors.’ Empathy. Compassion? Guess I’m a ‘sucker and a loser,’ too. At any rate, the hero stuff and the story either later today or tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

As always, forgive typos, spellos, etc. When I attempt editing in this format my text often disappears into the ether. Who knows why. One of these days I’ll stop what I’m doing here long enough to figure that part of it out.