By: Mitja Iršič
One of the greatest problems of the Western world is the belief that all people are inherently good and that everyone follows the moral compass of Western values. When Hamas slaughters civilians, we rationalise it as a consequence of Palestinian suffering. When Angela Merkel leads a treacherous, pro-Russian policy for twenty years, we assume it is due to naivety. When Golob’s government drives society toward anarcho-tyranny and the economy toward degrowth, we believe it is a mix of ideological blindness and incompetence.
Psychology recognises a range of psychological states (e.g., the dark triad: narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy) that clearly show a portion of the population lacks the moral compass we today take for granted. Such individuals can act manipulatively, without conscience or empathy; worse still, sometimes chaos and dancing on the grave of a fallen civilisation is their morbid goal.
Recently, letters from Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar surfaced. The six-page document reveals the twisted world of a clinical psychopath who gives explicit instructions for attacks: ordering massacres in civilian areas, burning civilians with flamethrowers, broadcasting atrocities in public media, all with the aim of instilling fear and causing political destabilisation. The document specifically demands that the violence be recorded and quickly disseminated to create “images of horror” that will trigger mass reactions and long-term societal destabilisation. For ordinary people, such Bronze Age thinking is so foreign that they wrap it in the cellophane of rationality, believing Sinwar was driven into psychotic neurosis by the environment he lived in.
Similarly, we justify Angela Merkel’s catastrophic sixteen-year rule in Germany through the lens of our humanity and rationality. If in 2005 we had imagined what a silent Russian agent would need to do to sabotage and destroy Germany from within, we would say: first, attack nuclear power plants and push wind and solar energy to ruin the energy sector; then, destroy the economy through brutal regulation and make the country as dependent as possible on the Russian Federation, which was already nearing full-blown fascism. Well, all of this happened under Merkel – and continued. She flattered Putin, claimed European security was unimaginable without him, opposed NATO membership for attacked Georgia… even when she recently spoke out and blamed everyone but Putin for the war in Ukraine, some still do not grasp what is happening. We struggle to accept that some people simply do not have good intentions. Both Merkel and Sinwar operated by principles entirely alien to the average person.
And what about Slovenia? After three years of Robert Golob’s rule, the economy has suffered numerous blows, appearing as if the government is deliberately sabotaging entrepreneurs. From near-weekly tax hikes, heavier burdens on workers’ wages, and draconian regulations to the destruction of the country’s international reputation through policies favouring despotic Middle Eastern regimes. On the other side – a complete collapse of citizen safety: week after week, we report incidents the police refuse to discuss unless forced to – allegedly due to “secondary victim protection.” The security situation in Dolenjska has spiralled into deadly violence, where unconvicted Roma individuals assault Slovenians, Slovenian police officers, and even peaceful Roma. One gets the feeling we are heading toward two outcomes: economic degrowth, where the economy shrinks and living standards fall, and anarcho-tyranny, where dangerous psychopaths roam the streets unpunished, and the justice system has no will to protect ordinary people.
Is this a case of complete incompetence or Machiavellian intent, where those in power aim to make people as frightened, poor, and dependent on the socialist state as possible? That judgment, I leave to you.