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You're being too literal about the word psychopath. The original article claims, in essence, that war creates an environment where ordinary people can kill with
by gizmo 15y ago
You're being too literal about the word psychopath. The original article claims, in essence, that war creates an environment where ordinary people can kill without it affecting them much personally. That is, from a behavioral point of view, what psychopaths do in regular society.
The article definitely isn't claiming that the 5% of so of humanity that is genetically incapable of feeling (much) empathy (i.e. sociopaths) make up 80% of the military corpus. The math obviously doesn't work out.
The article claims that war changes people. Some end up with PTSD, other people cope in another other way that makes them look like psychopaths.
- kevinkemp 15y agoI'm not sure that the math doesn't work out. I'd think that 80% of the part of the military that actively engages in combat is well below 5% of the population. I'd consider it obvious that psychopaths would be much more likely to join a group of people where they would be tolerated, perhaps even glorified while also giving them an outlet for their tendencies.