I recently read an article online in The Atlantic that got me thinking and inspired this article, which hopefully will get all of you thinking as well. That article was about how psychopaths fit into politics, and why being a psychopath, or psycho, might actually be beneficial to a political career, terrifying as that is to think about.

For the purpose of this commentary, I will be defining a psychopath as a person experiencing the psychological condition of psychopathy, which is based on criteria including, but not limited to: a lack of remorse, or empathy, a sense of grandiosity, conning and manipulative behavior, superficial charm and refusal to take responsibility for one’s actions. Now the fear starts to set in as I, and many of you, I am sure, read that description of psychopathy and realize that it coincides with the behavior of many politicians and our impressions of them.

Granted, not all politicians fit this bill, and many of the politicians who meet some of these criteria do not meet others. Indeed, while I might describe Mitt Romney as a man who exhibits conning and manipulative and a sense of grandiosity, others might disagree or say the same thing about president Barack Obama. Different as the two men are, they share a behavioral trait that politicians exhibit with consistency and comfort—superficial charm. Regardless of where you or I might fall on the political spectrum, and regardless of which individual politicians we may favor, I would venture to say that most reasonable, educated people understand that politicians’ charm is, putting it nicely, amped up and magnified, for the sake of making themselves more appealing.

It makes sense, in a depressing sort of way. All of us exhibit signs of psychopathy more frequently than we would think, though perhaps to lesser degrees than politicians. When a man arrives at a party and uses his most charming smile and best “lines” on the girl he thinks is most likely to leave with him, he is using conning and manipulative behavior as well as superficial charm. Or, when you have to interact with someone at work who you need something from but who you dislike and you fake the smile and niceness you know will grease the bureaucratic wheels you need turned, you do something similar to the man in the previous example. Thus, we all have our own inner psychopaths.

This revelation, or observation, is most important for those who are least likely to take heed of it: university students and young adults freshly out of school. The reason it is so much more important for my age group than for any other is because we are on our way to reaching the age where you are “in charge,” or perceived to be “in charge,” of the country. In 10 or 20 years, people who are currently 18 to 25 will be the psychopaths running and being elected to office, and will also be the ones writing, or more accurately, typing, about said psychopaths. That is, unless something changes.
I am of the opinion that anyone attempting to win a public office at a national level in such a diverse country will have to continue to behave in certain psychopathic ways. I do not mean to say that they should be malignant in their lying or superficial charm, though that will surely occur as well. What I mean to say is that, even though people will continue to be polarized for and against a politician regardless of what he or she may say, the schmoozing and psychopathy goes a long way to getting people in your corner. Whether that ends up being abused and made into a remorseless and psychopathic political free-for-all is entirely up to you.