Horrific New Disease: “Socio-Affluenza” Sweeps Through Silicon Valley In Pandemic
By Diane Lester
Why do Silicon Valley billionaires buy planes full of hookers, sex robots and Presidential candidates?
Are Eric Schmidt, Elon Musk, Larry Page, John Doerr just eccentric or is there more going on? Does the Frat Boy rape culture of Silicon Valley turn billionaires into Caligula?
Over 30 Silicon Valley billionaires, all white males from the same fraternity clubs, have been discovered to have paid huge sums in order to operate a private CIA-like operation for the sole purpose of screwing with entire governments, in multiple countries, just so they can show off to each other to say “look what I did”. It is men’s room penis waving on an epic level.
Whereas as regular guys show off by seeing who can buy the biggest pick-up truck, the Silicon Valley mad men show off by seeing who can buy the biggest country. They have, what scientists, psychologists and sociologists now call: “Socio-Affluenza” .
This affliction occurs when sociopath billionaires have an epic bout of affluenza.
Let’s dig deeper into this:
Affluenza, a portmanteau of affluence and influenza, is a term used by critics of consumerism. It is thought to have been first used in 1954[1] but it gained legs as a concept with a 1997 PBS documentary of the same name [2] and the subsequent book, Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (2001, revised in 2005, 2014). These works define affluenza as “a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more.”[3] The term “affluenza” has also been used to refer to an inability to understand the consequences of one’s actions because of financial privilege, notably in the case of Ethan Couch.[4]
Theory
In 2007, British psychologist Oliver James asserted that there was a correlation between the increasing nature of affluenza and the resulting increase in material inequality: the more unequal a society, the greater the unhappiness of its citizens.[5] Referring to Vance Packard‘s thesis The Hidden Persuaders on the manipulative methods used by the advertising industry, James related the stimulation of artificial needs to the rise in affluenza. To highlight the spread of affluenza in societies with varied levels of inequality, James interviewed people in several cities including Sydney, Singapore, Auckland, Moscow, Shanghai, Copenhagen and New York.
In 2008 James wrote that higher rates of mental disorders were the consequence of excessive wealth-seeking in consumerist nations.[6] In a graph created from multiple data sources, James plotted “Prevalence of any emotional distress” and “Income inequality,” attempting to show that English-speaking nations have nearly twice as much emotional distress as mainland Europe and Japan: 21.6 percent vs 11.5 percent.[7] James defined affluenza as “placing a high value on money, possessions, appearances (physical and social) and fame”, which was the rationale behind the increasing mental illness in English-speaking societies. He explained the greater incidence of affluenza as the result of ‘selfish capitalism’, the market liberal political governance found in English-speaking nations as compared to the less selfish capitalism pursued in mainland Europe. James asserted that societies can remove the negative consumerist effects by pursuing real needs over perceived wants, and by defining themselves as having value independent of their material possessions.
In Australia
Clive Hamilton and Richard Denniss‘s book, Affluenza: When Too Much is Never Enough, poses the question: “If the economy has been doing so well, why are we not becoming happier?”[8]:vii They argue that affluenza causes overconsumption, “luxury fever,” consumer debt, overwork, waste, and harm to the environment. These pressures lead to “psychological disorders, alienation and distress,”[8]:179 causing people to “self-medicate with mood-altering drugs and excessive alcohol consumption.”[8]:180
They note that a number of Australians have reacted by “downshifting” — they decided to “reduce their incomes and place family, friends and contentment above money in determining their life goals.” Their critique leads them to identify the need for an “alternative political philosophy,” and the book concludes with a “political manifesto for wellbeing.”[9]
Notable incidents
In December 2013, State District Judge Jean Boyd sentenced a North Texas teenager, Ethan Couch,[10][11] to 10 years’ probation for driving under the influence and killing four pedestrians and injuring 11[12] after his attorneys successfully argued that the teen suffered from affluenza and needed rehabilitation, and not prison. The lawyers had argued that Couch was unable to understand the consequences of his actions because of his financial privilege.[13] The defendant had been witnessed on surveillance video stealing beer from a store, driving with seven passengers in a Ford F-350 stolen from his father, and speeding (70 miles per hour (110 km/h) in a 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) zone). Couch was also driving while under the influence of alcohol (with a blood alcohol content of 0.24%, three times the legal limit for an adult in Texas) and the tranquilizer Valium.[14] At a February 5, 2014, hearing, Eric Boyles — whose wife and daughter were killed in the crash — said, “Had he not had money to have the defense there, to also have the experts testify, and also offer to pay for the treatment, I think the results would have been different.”[15]
PATHOCRACY: THE GLOBAL ORDER, DO PSYCHOPATHS RULE THE WORLD?
Roman Emperor Caligula
Throughout history, psychopaths, sociopaths, narcissists, and assorted antisocial-personality-disordered individuals have ruled societies.
Psychopaths and sociopaths often exhibit glibness and superficial charm, have a grandiose sense of self-worth, are pathological liars, display extreme narcissism, are deceitful, cunning and manipulative, exhibit a lack of remorse or guilt, show a callous disregard for the feelings of others, have no conscience, lack empathy, and fail to accept responsibility for their actions.
In a competitive world, the people who act immorally, who have no regard for truth, are going to have an advantage over those who play by the rules. The result is that those who achieve positions of power will be the most ruthless, the most sociopathic, the ones without conscience.
In societies run by psychopaths, ambitious individuals and sycophants, who are not clinically psychopathic, are induced to model themselves after powerful psychopaths in order to achieve power. The result: psychopaths breed more psychopaths.
When our ruling class – corporate leaders, bankers, academics, generals, media executives, Senators and Congressmen and even Presidents – are liars and deceivers, and are ruthless, callous manipulators who have no regard for truth or other people, the entire fabric of society is twisted in their image, and psychopathic behavior becomes the norm.
Our world is characterized by: permanent war, full-spectrum dominance, targeted assassinations, rendition, torture, water-boarding, mercenaries, Blackwater, paramilitaries, Contras, cruise missiles, drones, landmines, cluster bombs, napalm, Agent Orange, depleted uranium, biological and chemical weapons, enemy combatants, shock and awe, mujahideen, al-Qaeda, Taliban, Islamic State, state terrorism, false flags, 9/11, color revolutions, regime change, coup d’etats, sanctions, drug trafficking, money laundering, plausible deniability, impunity, fascism and neo-fascism, Auschwitz, Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, genocide, apartheid, dictatorship, plutocracy, oligarchy, kleptocracy, political sociopaths and narcissists, corruption, predatory capitalism, profiteering, tax havens, bank bail-outs and bail-ins, too-big-to-fail, monopoly capitalism, financialization, corporatism, corporate personhood, golden parachutes, fracking, mountain-top removal, tar sands, Fukashima, laboratory-created diseases, genetically-engineered food, glyphosate, three-strikes, maximum-security, corporate media, public relations, propaganda, surveillance, RFID chips, optical scans, facial recognition, globalization, austerity, structural adjustment, exploitation, poverty, the New World Order.
It is clear that this world has not been built by caring human beings, but has been constructed and is run by powerful hallow soulless individuals.
And, despite the violence, suffering and chaos they have caused, we allow them to remain at the top, and in control.
To Read More On The Topic, See:
-
John de Graaf, Coauthor of the book Affluenza Appalled by the Ethan Couch Decision, TIME, December 14, 2013
-
“Escape from Affluenza”, KCTS
-
Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, John de Graaf, David Wann & Thomas H. Naylor, 2001 ISBN 1-57675-199-6
-
Dart, Tom (6 February 2014). “Texas teenager suffering ‘affluenza’ avoids jail for second time”. The Guardian.
-
James, Oliver (2007). Affluenza: How to Be Successful and Stay Sane. Vermilion. ISBN 978-0-09-190011-3.
-
James, Oliver (2008). The Selfish Capitalist. Vermilion. ISBN 978-0-09-192381-5.
-
James, Oliver (2007). “Appendix 2: Emotional Distress and Inequality: Selfish vs Unselfish Capitalist Nations”. Affluenza: How to be Successful and Stay Sane. London: Vermilion. p. 344. ISBN 978-0-09-190010-6. 1. The mean prevalence of emotional distress for the six English-speaking nations combined was 21.6%. The mean for the other nations, mainland Western Europe plus Japan, was 11.5%.
-
Clive Hamilton; Richard Denniss (2005). Affluenza: When Too Much Is Never Enough. Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74115-624-9.
-
“A manifesto for wellbeing”. wellbeingmanifesto.net.
-
Payne, Will (16 December 2013). “EXCLUSIVE – Sins of the ‘affluenza’ boy’s parents: Millionaire father and mother of teen let off despite killing four in DUI crash have been accused of more than TWENTY crimes and traffic violations”. Daily Mail (London).
-
Caulfield, Philip (2013-12-11). “Texas rich kid who killed 4 in drunken car crash spared jail”. New York Daily News (NYDailyNews.com). Retrieved 2013-12-17.
-
Neil, Martha (6 February 2014). “‘Affluenza’ teen on probation for fatal crash is sent to pricey rehab”. American Bar Association. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
-
“‘Tax Dollars Used to Pay Affluenza Teen’s Rehab”. KFDX Texoma’s Homepage. 14 April 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
-
“Tax Dollars Used to Pay Affluenza Teen’s Rehab”. TEXOMASHOMEPAGE.
-
The Circle of Simplicity, Cecile Andrews, ISBN 0-06-092872-7
-
The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence, Jessie H. O’Neill, ISBN 978-0-9678554-0-0
-
Voluntary Simplicity, Duane Elgin, ISBN 0-688-12119-5
-
Voluntary Simplicity, Daniel Doherty & Amitai Etzioni, ISBN 0-7425-2066-8
-
How Much Is Too Much? Raising Likeable, Responsible, Respectful Children-From Toddler to Teens- In an Age of Overindulgence, Clarke, Jean Illsly, Bredehoft, David & Dawson, Connie, ISBN 978-0-7382-1681-2
-
A film clip “The Open Mind – Affluenza (1984)” is available for free download at the Internet Archiv
