Ian Hughes on "Disordered Minds" and the Threat to Democracy

Ian Hughes, an Irish Physicist and Psychologist has written a book entited Disordered Minds: How Dangerous Personalities are Destroying Democracy, which is scheduled for release in late September. (It is available for pre-order, though, through Amazon.)

In the meantime, Ian shared a TedTalk he did on the book that I thought was worth sharing now.

Here he makes the point that if humanity is to survive, we need to change our standard operating procedure from unbridled competition to collaboration and empathy.  Some people, however, Ian asserts, are completely incapable and unwilling to do that. 

Unfortunately, history has shown that this kind of person at times manages to attain tremendous power--examples being Stalin, Hitler, and Pol Pot.  The only way to avoid falling victim to the damage such personalities have wrought, he asserts, is democracy.   He makes this point more clearly in the video, and with more detail, I am sure, in the forthcoming book. 

While these ideas might seem obvious to some of us, sadly, it seems they are not at all familiar to others, and they need to be.