When Humans and Reptiles Collide

With fairness and defiance, her letter confronted her formal team for its pandemic of groupthink, its near reptilian hostility towards out groups, and the overall lack of democratic sentiments.

Groupthink is what feasted on the mind of Bush when he incinerated Iraq as he lied in the name of democracy and WMDs; and of ‘the Committee to Save the World’ who did the exact opposite by banning any regulations on derivatives. If Facebook likes were to count as votes, she would have won with more than three times the vote of her former team.

Does Summers, the Shred, or Scooter remind you of your boss or your coworker? Do you know anyone near you who suffered the same fate as Born, Moore, or Valerie? If the answer is yes, there’s a good chance your employer would be the next Lehman or AIG, no matter how big or small in size. There’s an even a bigger chance however, that your boss – and for that matter Summers himself – is a psychopath. A characteristic that is partially a product of the moral void we call our society and our educational system. A trait all too visible in the recklessness of the financial sector: before, during, and after the crash. A mentality I could only describe as that of a cold-blooded reptile.

If Your Job Is An Airplane It’s Infested With Snakes

A Georgetown Zoologist once noted that, “the reptile, can break into the mammals nest and eat all the young, and be burrowed into the still-warm and living flank of the mother, before any reaction is evident … reptiles don’t even know that they are lucky, while mammals don’t believe that reptiles can exist.” By the time you noticed that there’s a psychopath in your work place, like the mother who doesn’t know her children are already devoured, it is often too late and the damage is done.

One of the most studied of personality disorders, functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) research indicates that psychopaths are unable to experience basic human emotions and feelings of guilt, remorse, or empathy. The characteristic of a psychopath can be attributed to superficial relations, the manipulation of people and opinions for their usefulness, a powerful sense of self/egomania, not taking responsibility for their actions, impulsivity and thrill seeking behavior, grandiose statements and the lack of long term goals, irresponsibility and the putting of others at risk and pathological lying. It is a mentality of self-absorbance driven by personal gains through any means necessary.

According to an FBI bulletin on corporate psychopaths, the superficial charm and grandiose sense of self of some psychopaths enables them to make favorable, long-lasting first impressions. The captivating stories of their lives and accomplishments can result in instant rapport, allowing them to hide their true remorseless selves.

Moreover, their façade is often seen as the trait of an ideal employee by board members of the workplace. Their superficial charm is often mistaken for charisma, their irresponsibility for risk taking and entrepreneurial spirit, thrill seeking and impulsivity for action orientation and the ability to multitask, empty yet grandiose statements for visionary and strategic thinking and emotional poverty for calmness and the capability to make tough choices. Choices that are no brainers for a psychopathic mind.

In times of chaos in the workplace, the psychopath is able to present him/her-self as the knight in shining armor that will rescue the company, even if the chaos was orchestrated by the corporate psychopath for his-or-her own benefit, often leading to his or her promotion in the corporate hierarchy. Indeed, people like Goodwin, Summers or Lehman CEO Richard Fuld have made their names as tough decision makers with bombastic personalities.