Diagnosing the State

A country is many things—it's a culture, a land mass, and to some, it represents a set of benevolent values—it's also a state. When I hear self-proclaimed patriots defending the institutions designed to impose hierarchy and control upon the mass population, I always wonder why the system of state-power, in their minds, must be admired as a prerequisite to be labeled a patriot. With the rise of nationalism in the United States—a country prone to bumptiousness from its founding—it could behoove us to analyze the assertion that the state functions, even in part, as a philanthropic institution. To do this, it is unnecessary to discuss specific people; decisions are made by individuals but they all reflect the interests of the ruling class. To demonstrate my point of systemic maliciousness clearly, I will use the official diagnostic criteria for "antisocial personality disorder" as detailed in the fifth edition of the DSM to look at state behavior and diagnose the state. I will be using the United States as an example but in my opinion, this is a plague on all houses. For those unaware, antisocial personality disorder is somewhat of an umbrella diagnosis—psychopathy and sociopathy are quite tedious to distinguish, but those are terms you might be more familiar with. A. "a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others, occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three (or more) of the following." The age criterion is of course only there for people; however, the US is over 245 years old so you pedants can rest easy. "1. Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors, as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest." The US, throughout its history, has repeatedly broken its own, and international laws. We could start with the obvious: CIA torture in Guantánamo was a textbook violation of UNCAT (the United Nations Convention against Torture) and the Geneva Conventions. These conventions are customary international law to which the US is a signatory. In fact, as a high contracting party, the United States is obligated to investigate and prosecute violators, as well as adhere to Geneva rules even when others do not. Something else forbidden by international law is the attack on civilian infrastructure, something the allied forces forgot during the Gulf War in the 90s. The US also supplied weapons to Indonesia in the 70s, despite formally boycotting military aid, to support their invasion of East Timor: another war crime. And in the US war against Nicaragua Ronald Reagan was condemned by the International Court of Justice for the "unlawful use of force," the Security Council also made two resolutions calling on the US to observe international law, but both were vetoed by the United States. These are a handful of examples in a lengthy catalog. "2. deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure." The chorus of congressional climate change deniers isn't occupied with crazy people; it's occupied with greedy people. It's filled with people like Stuart Kirk—a Wallstreet banker—who explained their position quite well: "At a big bank like ours, what do people think the average loan length is? It is six years. What happens to the planet in year seven is actually irrelevant to our loan book." I suspect even the anti- science vanguards like Newt Gingrich and Jim Inhofe aren't as ignorant as they pretend to be. Although I do think some of the current right-wing ilk like Marjory Taylor Greene, who suggested climate change is good for your health, might be as thick as advertised. If you want something less obtuse, the bogus justification of the Iraq War comes to mind. Colin Powell's infamous speech at the UN presented false information about Iraq's nonexisting nuclear weapons program. Even if such a program existed, to automatically assume that would be a valid Casus Belli is a stretch. I could list more deception by going into detail about the demonization of the poor—Reagan's "welfare queens"—but I'll leave that lengthy discussion for another time. "3. Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead." I'll briefly mention climate change again; our whole economy is based on immediate growth, sacrificing long-term sustainability. Did you know crows think ahead? They sometimes postpone instantaneous reward for a bigger satisfactory prize later. Crows would have moved to green energy years ago! Also, bringing up the wars again, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq all became protracted disasters. In the case of Iraq (2003) Robert Perito—who studied postwar problems in Bosnia, Kosovo, East Timor, and Haiti—explained the problems that would emerge after the invasion. But the Bush team failed to plan ahead. "4. Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults." Check "5. Reckless disregard for safety of self or others." Besides the aforementioned, take the drone program. Besides the violation of the fifth amendment (due to the program officially targeting suspects, violating the right to due process), it's a terrorist-generating system. President Eisenhower in 1958 observed to his staff that there is a "campaign of hatred against us" by the people of the middle east. The security council looked into it and reported back that there is a perception among the people, that the US supports draconian regimes that oppose democracy, because of our interest in oil. Furthermore, they said it's difficult to counter this perception because it's correct. If we were concerned with our security, we'd stop making enemies. "6. Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations." The national debt is over $30 trillion. And the plethora of important crises and numerous working-class issues are being "solved" by ignoramuses and liars if they're worked on at all. "7. Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another." The apathy or even sheer contempt politicians show people lower on the totem pole can be pretty staggering. From refusing to pass prison reform—privatizing the industry instead; resulting in, for example, poor medical service and expensive fees for communicating with loved ones. Politicians rationalize this by writing off all prisoners as scumbags who don't deserve to be paid the legal minimum wage for the work they do while incarcerated—to denying healthcare as a basic human right. How about allowing corporations to sacrifice the environment on the altar of corporate profit? And of course, with the wars again, the insistence that our middle eastern endeavors were part of our altruistic freedom promotion project. Zbigniew Brzezinski—Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor—after the US had stoked up and armed Islamist extremists to trap the USSR into what Brzezinski called their "Vietnam," justified the smoldering mess Afghanistan had become by asking: "What is more important in world history? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some agitated Muslims or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the Cold War?" In my opinion that checks box seven. I think we can check all seven boxes for criterion A (though we only needed three). There are three points left for a clinical diagnosis but they're only for people. Nevertheless to leave no stone unturned: B. "The individual is at least 18 years." Yes. C. "There is evidence of conduct disorder with onset before age 15 years." I'd say slavery and what we did to Native Americans suffices. And finally D. "The occurrence of antisocial behavior is not exclusively during the course of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder." No. So that is, in short, a fairly conclusive diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder for the government of the United States. And although there is no cure for psychopathy in humans, state systems can be altered. I would argue that as a patriot who loves this country; the people, the culture or multitudes thereof, and what it represents... you should want to change the political system into a compassionate institution dedicated to improving the prospect of human life. And finally, to close, I want to say again that although I chose America as an example, no one should feel too good about their own country's state. Every state is concerned with proliferating influence and power. We could all do with some more democracy and compassion; until then, know that our governments function like psychopaths that should be watched and contained.