Thread by @docrussjackson

#THREAD

The ancient Greeks took specific measures to ensure that ruthless narcissists like Trump & Johnson were unable to dominate politics.

A key problem in modern times is that we aren’t stringent enough about the people we allow to become politicians.
theconversation.com/how-the-ancien…

In the 1960s, archaeologists discovered ballots that rather than being used to usher someone into office, they were used to give citizens the boot. Called ostraca, each shard had the name of a candidate the voter wanted to see exiled for the next 10 years.
smithsonianmag.com/history/ancien…

There’s a great deal of research showing that people with negative personality traits, such as narcissism, ruthlessness, amorality or a lack of empathy and conscience, are attracted to high-status roles, including politics & business.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09…

In a representative democracy, the people who put themselves forward as representatives include a sizeable proportion of people with disordered personalities – people who crave power because of their malevolent traits.

The 'Dark Triad' consists of three overlapping but distinct personality variables: narcissism, Machiavellianism, & psychopathy.

This research paper addresses why and how dark personalities overlap.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1002/pe…

And the most disordered & malevolent personalities –the most ruthless & amoral – tend to rise to the highest positions in any political party, & in any government.

This is the phenomenon of “pathocracy”, discussed in Steve Taylor's new book DisConnected.

johnhuntpublishing.com/iff-books/our-…

Numerous American mental health professionals have argued that Trump has a serious personality disorder which made him unfit for the role of president.

One of the key concerns was his apparent failure to take responsibility for his actions or mistakes.

simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Too-Much…

In the UK, Boris Johnson has shown similar personality traits. The most recent example was his petulant, narcissistic reaction to the House of Commons report that found he had deliberately lied to & misled parliament on multiple occasions while in office.

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1…

Johnson has shown a self-deluded inability to admit his mistakes or take responsibility for his actions – along with traits of dishonesty & glibness – characteristic of a “dark triad” personality.

Ancient Athenians knew of the danger of unsuitable personalities attaining power.

The a ncient Athenians' standard method of selecting political officials was sortition – random selection by lot.

This was a way of ensuring that ordinary people were represented in government, and of safeguarding against corruption and bribery.

Athenians were aware this meant a risk of handing responsibility to incompetent people but mitigated the risk by ensuring that decisions were made by groups or boards.

Different group members took responsibility for different areas, acting as a check on each other’s behaviour.

Athenian democracy was direct in other ways too. Political decisions, such as whether to go to war, the election of military leaders or the nomination of magistrates, were made at massive assemblies, where thousands of citizens would gather.

britannica.com/topic/Ecclesia…

A minimum of 6,000 citizens was required to pass any legislation.

Citizens usually voted by showing hands – also sometimes with stones or pieces of broken pottery – and decisions were carried by simple majority.

They also practised a system of ostracism, not dissimilar to some egalitarian hunter-gatherer groups aware of the danger of alpha males dominating.

Ostracisms took place annually - disruptive people who threatened democracy were nominated for expulsion.

sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

If a sufficient number of citizens voted in favour, the disruptors would be banished from the city for ten years.

In a sense, the decision to deny Johnson a former member’s parliamentary pass can be seen as a form of ostracism to protect against his corrupting influence.

Sortition is still used in modern democracies, most notably in jury service, but these ancient democratic principles could be used much more widely to positive effect.

In fact, in recent years, many political thinkers have recommended reviving sortition in modern government.

In 2014, Alexander Guerrero, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, published an influential paper advocating what he called “lottocracy” as an alternative to representative democracy.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.111…

In this system, government is undertaken by “single-issue legislatures” assemblies that focus on specific issues such as agriculture or healthcare. Members of the legislatures are chosen by lot and make decisions after consulting experts on the relevant topic.

The political scientists Hélène Landemore has advocated a similar model in which assemblies of randomly selected citizens (ranging in size from a 150 to 1,000) make political decisions.

politicalscience.yale.edu/people/h-l-ne-…

Landemore’s model of “open democracy” also includes referendums and “crowd-sourced feedback loops” (when large numbers of people discuss policies on internet forums, and the feedback is passed to legislators).

politicalscience.yale.edu/publications/o…

In addition, the political philosopher John Burnheim has used the term demarchy for a political system made of small randomly selected “citizen’s juries” who discuss and decide public policies.

Such measures would be a way of reducing the likelihood of people with personality disorders attaining power since they would make leadership positions less attractive to ruthless and amoral people.

theconversation.com/the-darkness-o…

Direct democracy means less individual power and more checks and limitations to individual authority.

Governments and organisations become less hierarchical, more cooperative than competitive, & based on partnership rather than power.

This means less opportunity for disordered people like Trump or Johnson to satisfy their craving for dominance in the political sphere.

We would then have a better chance of becoming free of #pathocracy, and all of the chaos and suffering it causes.

The above thread quotes extensively from this article by Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University. 🙏

theconversation.com/how-the-ancien…