Who Needs A Can Of Worms?

Weird, my instincts had me up and halfway out the door for a good ol fashioned ginger hunt before I realised it was an analogy.

But seriously, I'm fairly jaded but some people who display ice cold unaffection make my hackles stand.

Your neighbours might all form a mob and eat the gingers in a frenzy, but somewhere in the mix will be a few people calmly egging them on just for fun.

 

I think it's the lack of self awareness that scares me. At least your psychopaths know themselves. On some level I can kind of respect someone who says that they would probably enjoy killing but they don't do it because they doubt they could get away with it. On the other hand my neighbours would say "Murder is wrong, you guys", and actually believe it, right up until they see the mob forming. Then they'd suddenly be all like "Well, obviously I didn't mean to include gingers, because that's different", while still believing deep down that murder is wrong.

At least with a proper psychopath you know where you stand. You can also work out who they are in advance. Self-deception is a lot harder to detect.

 

Yeah that's one reason I find english folk to be so frustrating.

I aspire to be zen, which may seem like textbook psychopathy on the surface, but which is based on self awareness (to the point where you can shrug off your own desires by practice).

So, someone who thoughtlessly pursues their desires and 100% ignores the suffering they cause (in themselves and others) - an actual psychopath - does not seem to me to be self-aware. In fact, I find they tend to be absolutely certain that there's nothing wrong with them. I wouldn't bet on them advertising it for you in advance, either.

Indeed, it's the moments of hypocrisy as the component beings, barely evolving out of tooth and claw, try to reconcile their actions and their ideals, which counts as a conscience in my book.