The Brain Plague.

There are a thousand instances around the world that point to something happening in our brains. From the notorious, the political, to sport, economics and the wealthy we seem to be going through a phase quite opposite to the enlightenment. It seems so ubiquitous amongst our institutions that it might be termed a plague, a plague of un-enlightened self-interest amongst those in power. I’m not talking here about some covert conspiracy but what the CIA called ‘group think’ to explain their wrong intelligence over Iraq. ‘Sorry guys, honest mistake. Move on, nothing to see here.’ They called it groupthink as a sort of benign explanation of an everyday, common or garden human fallibility, a one-off aberration. It was accepted as such and a hundred thousand people died. In the past I’ve called it Psychotic Group Collusion, PGC on the basis it sounds more scientific than a Mark Twain throwaway comment. PGC has been ever present from Nero to The News of the World. A closed, self-protecting group will incrementally, day by day, invent their own psychotic view behind their closed doors. The problem is the mindset of the group changes so slowly they are unaware of it, and the longer the group is isolated the more they drift into psychosis as famous psychological experiments have proved. It’s why democracy was invented in the first place but with the advent of professional politicians our western democracies have circumvented its true value allowing the ‘political group’ to remain unchanged irrespective of elections. As a result the general public see government as strangely disconnected, in short, psychotic. The ‘political group’, seeing themselves as right-minded, conscientious public servants, feel unfairly attacked by subversive elements and ramp up their defences. National security is in fact political security as they fail to perceive the influence of their own Psychotic Group Collusion. No blame can be attached to this because throughout history no person or group has prevailed over its effects. These days though, due to various technological and social factors, PGC is becoming more rampant and its effects more destructive. As such our systems of governance must take account of PGC as a progressive psychological disorder and implement measures to counter it or suffer the same fate as history’s numerous examples. Sepp Blatter today and maybe Tony Blair tomorrow. They are not bad men, they have just done bad things under the influence of PGC. I suggest it is vital this condition is studied, conclusions drawn and measures implemented to take account of it.