Tuesday 19 August 2014

Narcissism in NZ politics

Nicky Hager, NZ Politics & personality disorders: Narcissism in the Beehive.

18 August, 2014



Being in power often suits the personality disordered because it requires a certain lack of concern and basic integrity in order to acquire it. Nicely you would call it risk taking, less nicely you would call it... no scruples.

In all my observations of the narcissistic inclined, its that the more you poke them, the more openly defiant and vicious they get which stands out as a consistent response mechanism.


I've held a position for a long time now, that neo-liberalism and all of its philosophies towards individual ownership, and individual achievement have the unintended consequence of pushing forwards and strengthening the narcissistic personality.


Nowhere has this been more abundantly clear to me than in the last 6 days since Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics was released.


Now to be fair there is nothing remarkable or surprising about the narcissistic response to being goaded into showing their hand. The response is usually always the same, deny deny deny and then smear everyone else in the toxic vapor of lies and innuendo. Narcissistic rage is an actual thing.


The general advice is, you should never go toe to toe with a narcissist because you will always lose, hell hath no fury like an unveiled narcissist.  My favourite (not really) moments in smear campaigns set against me by a particularly truth challenged narc lover, were those including veiled inferences I killed my ex partner, and outright claims that I'm mentally ill. Fudging details, leaving things out, putting things in that don't even exist, they are all the tools of the personality disordered who don't care what effect their lying has on anyone unfortunate enough to cross them.


I'm possessed of the kind of personality I'm more likely to pick the rock up and throw it, than I am to put it down and run in the opposite direction. There is nothing that winds me up more than a bullshitting narcissist arsehole tricking his way through life with a well orchestrated self promoting campaign of smoke and mirrors. 


I empathize with Nicky Hager. I see the frustration of having done due dilligence, painstaking, righteously ethically sound work... only to have a pack of circling narcissists tear it all apart on the strength of nothing more than throwaway isms and cheap verbal stunts.


And even as the electronic paper trail unravels and the lies begin to eat themselves, John Key barefaced in his blase dead eyed response, continues to bat off the questions. He knows they lead down a road he doesn't want to look at, he also doesn't care. If he did care, then he wouldn't constantly avoid and defer and blame. Avoidant and Narcissistic.


But also on hand he seems to have had a narcissistic cohort of individuals intent on the pleasure of wrecking and pillaging for self gain, to bathe in their power and omnipotence while they pull the levers of influence over an entire nation without thought or regard for anything but themselves. They don't care how it makes you feel they only care about what they can gain from the situation.


Poisonous thoughts, delusions of grandiose power, inordinate sense of entitlement run off the pages like the stench of rotten meat. This is narcissism in action, this isn't just saying mean things, it is utterly pathalogical and it is happening all the way to the top of our government.


Forbes says the following "When you criticize a narcissist –regardless of how accurate you are— you run the risk of inflicting a “narcissistic injury” and becoming the target of “narcissistic rage.”. And I think what Hagers book and John Keys response show are a ton of exactly what I was saying earlier about poking the bear.


What you have here is a Prime Minister caught on the hop and displaying all of his pathology in labelling Hager a 'screaming left wing conspiracy theorist' that is 'making stuff up'. Er... no John, it would appear its you thats making stuff up.
I've talked at length with friends about the parasitic nature of the narcissist inclined personality. I don't know if theres a name for this but they have a real clever party trick I call 'stealing your mirror image'.


And it works like this: I take your self image, usually one of a good person with a moral compass and I maddeningly usurp it from you and project it back at you as myself, because I want to look good, even though I know Im not. It is the height of manipulation tactics to do this to a person.  To add insult to injury, I then take my own self image, which is usually a really shit one of a person of low moral ethics, and dubious intent, and I project myself back at you.... as YOU. Now I am you and you are me and the mindfuck is complete.


Currently John Key and his cohort are doing this very thing to Nicky Hager, I can see that a mile off. It not a war so much of words as it is of psychology and identity which Hager is only going to win by letting the book speak for itself. He must not engage the poked bear or he will get his head ripped off, because like any proper narcissist I've ever met, they have no bottom line, no cut off point where enough is enough because they lack the necessary empathy to guide their emotional choices.


Additional John Key seems to be involved in a clusterfuck play group of other narcissists, Judith Collins, Cameron Slater and Jason Ede to name a few. They all have in common this deflecting, entitled, infuriating way of engaging in which nothing ever touches them... until now.


We can't allow this mind sickness to prevail, this way of being, it hurts our collectivism and our community. I hope that we begin to open our eyes to this and act appropriately when we go to the polls in a months time.



Additional reading:

Seeking Revenge Against a Narcissist: Know Thine Enemy




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