Monday, October 17, 2016

Alpha Males or the Donald J Trump Syndrome

I've always wondered about this concept of Alpha Male. There seem to be a lot of I don't know, let's say, defective alpha male types around. And let's just jump right to the point, Donald Trump comes to mind, exemplified so well in last Saturday night's SNL opening skit. Which, by the way, Donald really, really hated. Conversely however, the skit really was brilliant and nailed Hillary some too. But Trump is just much the more buffoonish. So what do you expect? It's satire.

I never wanted to be a leader myself. When I was a kid I kept getting thrown into those situations. I've had an unusual, rather unique background as a child. Someone once said that I had done more before high school than many adults do in their entire lifetime.

Adults seemed to like to depend on me going back even to grade school. An adult once told me back then that it doesn't matter that I just wanted to be a follower, I was a leader and the sooner I accepted that, the better. It was a frustrating moment. As was the year that followed.

I've met a lot of guys who acted out being "the leader". It seemed to mean something to them. I suspect it was a psychological failing on their part. Still, people flocked to them. They came across as very self-assured.

You just knew they had the right decisions. Trouble was, many times they simply didn't. They were acting the wise sage but were leading people off a cliff. Eventually people found that out though not always before it was far too late.

In that sense maybe they were the alpha males. Maybe I'm just an almost alpha male.

I just didn't give a damn if people followed me.

The question is, is being an alpha male intellectual or egoistic? Or let's say, psychological or sociological? That is to say, psychopathological or sociopathological? Related more to self, or the group? I'm gathering that the popular understanding of those who support that type is that it's sociological.

And this is where it gets interesting. Because there is a vast disparity between what these people want and expect and what the object of their attention is putting out, or capable of putting out.

Because there are two types of person, sociologically speaking. One who is empathetic to the group and one who is sociopathological. That is to say, one type of person relates to the group, cares about or for the group and the other couldn't care less about the group, only about themselves, so they act like they care and can be very, very good at it.

Who would you really rather follow? Someone who makes you feel good, who makes sense to you, even if they lead you of a cliff sometimes? Or someone who keeps you safe, even though you don't always understand them, even though you don't feel so warm and fuzzy? The former people tend to trust immediately, the latter, with experience in seeing how their methods work out.

Sometimes a sociopath is necessary to lead the way. Sometimes we even need killers to lead us. But typically these are only for short, highly acute situations. Once you get into longer term chronic situations, then you need to expunge yourself of the soc. alpha male for the psych. alpha male.

If you see what I'm saying. Let me put it this way. Trump is a sociopath. Obama and Clinton (either or any of them) aren't. It is the difference between the egoist and the intellectual.

From my understanding, speaking as someone with a degree in psychology (and not the kind of degree people might scoff at)...sociological alpha males tend to be of a lower IQ (if you like that kind of reference..."IQ", but it does acts as a good shorthand).

True psychological versions of alpha males allows for things a sociopath does not. Like reason. Like decency. Like empathy, or suffering maximum performance for considerations of humanity, decency, when they are so good, that even with those hindrances, they can still excel beyond the capabilities of the soc. alpha male.

We have a case before us of a soc. alpha male, or a psychological alpha female as in Trump and Clinton, respectively.

You decide who to vote for. If you can. If you're capable. Because amazingly at this point in the game with twenty-two days left at this writing to the election, there are still people who cannot make up their minds.

That is sad. It means the information they have received isn't conclusive for them. It means, they are getting their information from the wrong sources. And it may very well be that all the sources the believe are available to them, that they would trust, are those poor sources of information.

Mixing this all up with the aggressive sociopathic behavior of a Donald Trump has led to such women as are now coming out against him. I'm saddened by the mono level, single threaded minds of conservatives who can't understand this or to hold two concepts in their heads at once.

We need to end this nonsense of giving so much deference to those who are stupid, greedy, or sociopathic. They use our good and civic natures against us, to make us question what we know to be true. Again and again until we don't know what to believe. But an educated person knows, can judge and can see through the lies and sociopathic behaviors. It takes time, patience and effort. 

Let's also try to remember what it is to have class. To be intelligent. Honest. To seek Truth as the goal and not just self-serving behaviors. 

Let's return again to evolving as human beings and bettering our social structures, our connections between all humans everywhere.

Let's vote for a woman this time, or at least an alpha who is decent and reasonable, with at least some obvious ethics (or for you delusionals, at least she feigns having ethics, unlike some others). Besides, at this time? There is no decent alpha male running for president.

Don't shoot the messenger. I'm just calling it how I see it and how the evidence presents itself. 

3 comments:

  1. Quite an opinion you have. However you seem to have missed and or confused a few things. Original Alpha Males, an old classification using modern language, were the strongest, the ones who could win the battle, one on one. They became the leader because they were the strongest, best at battle. Ok perhaps a few could out think the opponent and win a battle by tactics alone, but you still needed a good and strong right arm. Weaklings just couldn't cut it, because it wasn't just war it also had to do with killing for food, which was actually more important on a day to day basis.
    And just because you were stronger, faster, able to beat the rest, a good hunter and more, doesn't make you a sociopath. I'm pretty sure you know what the signs are of a true socio/Psychopath. Like they have no conscience, they don't believe there is such a thing, I seriously doubt that includes Donald.
    Bck to your original topic, The Alpha Males is more of what you might call a natural born leader. The lesser personality types are attracted to them for variety of reasons. One biggie would be protection, of course charisma is another good factor for an Alpha if you have that you make people feel safe just being around you. Of course being able to actually deal with problems, attacks by enemies, and other such things only enhances the attraction of beta's and below.

    I get it you don't like Donald on a personal level. But you have never met him. And your opinions are likely based on TV and social media over the last year or so, which includes a ton of left wing propaganda, character assassination by another term, typical Clintonesque tactics. So, seriously how do you come to the conclusion Donald is a Sociopath? If you had labeled Clinton as one I would likely have agreed with you, because of the stories I have heard and or read from people who were around her, especially if they had been assigned to any of her security details. Then there are the decades of lies she has told. Likely a compulsion she has, what's the other term oh yeah pathological liar. And like her husband she never admits the truth even when cornered with her lies exposed she denies denies, denies, like a true sociopath. I suppose you could classify her as Alpha Female [ Alpha Bitch, no reflection on female dogs] wanna be.

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  2. Thanks for the comments. The main purpose of an article like this IS to spawn discourse.
    It's widely known by professional mental health types that many CEOs have sociopathic tendencies at varying degrees. It is in part a necessary component at success. It's not as you may have pointed out, always a bad thing.
    Trump fits this.
    I think YOU are confusing pathological with sociological which I was trying to address here and maybe (being a difficult subject) I could have been more successful.
    I do not like Trump for what Trumnp has said and done which has nothing whatsoever to do with media or Clinton manipulations. I don't fall typically to that kind of minapulation because I spend so much time digging deeper. I'm human. It's entirely possible (only) some of my feelings are manipulated as you indicate, but those would merely be shadings of an underlying foundation built from what I have personally seen and heard from Trump, and other things I have a high degree of verification on.
    If only others would be as "confused" as I may appear to Trump supporters, there would be far fewer supporters of his.
    So many of the alleged Hillary lies are accountable to things other than what is claimed, just as you here indicated about me with Trump and his camp. Some of that is politics, pure and simply and cannot land fully on Hillary. Or Trump.
    But he has not just taken things to a new level, but he has taken a tangent outside the scope of what it is to be an America. Now especially with the Putin/Russian connection. Which whether or not Trump sees or admits it, is real.
    So yes, Trump is not a sociopath (that would mean 100%) but he obviously does have sociopathic tendencies which have aided him in his business dealings. And is why many cannot stand to do business with him.
    Which includes people we are both related to.
    Not because he is a good businessman or a genius at business, but because of his underhanded actions and near illegal business dealings. His own accountant has said he doesn't know practically anything about the tax laws. There is not comparison between who is the bigger liar. Trump wins, hands down.
    At some point one can claim business genius but one can also (and this is the trend of this country now by the way) it is unacceptable and not the quality of someone we need as president.
    Thanks again for your comments.

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    Replies
    1. By the way... Back since the 1980s when Letterman used to call Trump up on his show and chat, I thought Trump was awesome. I watched many seasons of the Apprentice. I liked his daughter Ivanka. My attitude has changed severely about him. I don't know how much of his current persona is just him or affected. It doesn't matter in considering what his actions have done to us among ourselves and about us in the world at large. I'm now just a full on, he's gotta go, type. I also come at this from my understanding of espionage and the inner workings of the government. There is a vast amount of information there people never see and is freely available. But one has to know what to believe or not, how to triangulate information and see the connections when they click, and more importantly when they don't, or are mis/disinformation. So I'm not coming at Trump from a I hate Trump because Hillary says so. I'm bummed. I really liked him. As my son said recently, I liked him, until I got to know him better. And yes, you can get to know someone merely by their public persona and other data. Because even if his public person isn't his private person, it's his choice and as it affect America and the world, that IS important.

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