NARCISSISM, POLITICS, DISLIKE OF FREEDOM, DECLINING POPULARITY OF LIBERAL DEMOCRACY. PART 1

“Politics is about power more than the truth, about winning more than being right.”

For some reason, maybe because of the current political events and wars, have made me think and read a lot about narcissism and its relationship to politics and wars.

I have been thinking about Mr. Trump and his vision of making America great again (MAGA), while promoting himself and side-stepping American democracy.

I have been thinking about Mr. Putin and his vision to recreate Tsarist Russian Empire with absolute totalitarian control and making himself a new Tsar by invading Ukraine to prove it.

I have been thinking about Mr. Xi vision of China by making himself a life- time leader without any concern of age-related dementia, under the total control of Chinees Communist Party (CCP), committing ethnic cleansing of minority population with criminal and genocidal practices, and adapting capitalistic economic models to make China the second largest power in the world.

I have been thinking about Mr. Modi’s vision of India trying to turn the most populous and ethnically diverse country in the world into a racist Hindu state.

I have been thinking about the inhumane cruel war between Hamas and Israel and the role Netanyahu played in it, by his relentless pursue of power position, extreme right-wing policies, and considering Palestinians as lesser people.

I have also been thinking many small counties of the world are run by small dictators, or religious fanatics or far-right nationalists.

Even though I am not a mental health care professional, just a regular doctor, I think all these troublesome leaders of the world have something in common and that is either they have narcissistic personality traits, or they are overtly narcissistic and have what psychologists call “dark triad” of grandiose form of narcissism: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and Psychopathy.

My mind is frequently occupied with the following probing questions:

1 – What is narcissism? Is it just a personality trait or a mental illness?

2 – Why people with narcissistic personality traits are attracted to politics and often get elected to leadership positions?

3 – Why are certain groups of people always attracted to them and remain loyal to them, even surrender their freedoms, regardless of what their leader does?

4 - Why does constitutional liberal democracy is declining in popularity across the globe?

I shall try to answer these questions as I understand them, in short summaries, in a sequential manner in my next chapter.