‘Can I play with madness?'.The psychopathy of Evil, leadership, and political mis-management.

Abstract

This paper will examine the psychopathy of evil as an aspect of political leadership, and noting Machiavelli’s treatment of the subject as it applies to leaders, often juxtaposed by Chomsky’s pronouncements. The rationale for this approach is within the observation that GW Bush and A Blair, as contemporary examples, have evaded prosecution for civilian deaths in Iraq, despite mounting evidence that they are directly responsible for the conduct of the Coalition military in that region. The above must be viewed in the context of opposition groups, such as Stop the War, The Lancet medical journal, Iraqbodycount.com, and Military Families Against the War, as supposed moral entrepreneurs and self-appointed ethical guardians, who consistently argue for an immediate withdrawal of troops amid mounting concern over non-combatant casualties. Moreover, evil as a concept in this scenario is apparently being ‘normalised’ in the media as an everyday or trivial event, often below celebrity indiscretions in news running orders. So, is this a deliberate ’downplaying’ of evil, or merely an acceptance of the banality of pernicious political leadership? This paper will unearth the facts versus the rhetoric, and come to a suitable judgement based on available evidence.