For a long time, I accepted the idea proposed by psychologists like Frank that he was simply trying to prove he a more macho man than his father who wimped out after winning the first Gulf War. That explanation did not explain the total indifference to life, the contempt one sees in Bush II when he talks to other people and his actions that border on sociopathy.
I believe that his entire self image is built around showing up those who think he is dumb or weak.For example Professor Tsurumi, his teacher at HBS has called him an indifferent student and a braggart forever claiming that he has special dispensations not available to others.I think a connection can be made between his fear of intelligent and perceptive men like the good professor and his need to show that he can best them by reaching a position of authority where he can dismiss their pronouncements with contempt.
While he fears the opinions of self made men like Professor Tsurumi, he has no fear of people below his socioeconomic level,even if they were intelligent.Here he pulls the age-old response to such people, ” how come if you are so smart, you are not as rich as I am”?
That perfectly describes his attitude toward the Press.
When he was approached by one such person who prefaced his question with “I think”, Bush asked him “Who cares what you think”? In that one contemptuous dismissal one can see all the traits we have come to associate with this man— arrogance, contempt for those less fortunate than himself, his anti-democratic instincts etc.
All of these traits pale into insignificance when one looks at his contempt for the lives of those at his mercy.When Karla Faye Tucker pleaded with him for clemency, he mocked her.He has sent thousands of our soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians to their deaths in his pursuit of a war based on lies. He has even outdone himself by his depraved indifference to the lives of his fellow citizens in New Orleans. That their deaths have not bothered him is the ultimate proof of the sadistic pleasure he derives in inflicting pain on the less fortunate.
In his tenure, our government looks more and more like a criminal enterprise and less and less like a group entrusted by the people with the solemn task of preserving our Constitution.All his advisers, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, remind me of the Consiglieres and others like Chertoff, Kerik, Giuliani,Rove look like made men of the gangs.In that environment, you are valued highly if you can dissemble without blinking your eyes and you can carry out ruthless assignments like destroying war heroes like Max Cleland.
He was unable to face Cindy Sheehan because he finally could not use his time worn sneer against a mother who has lost her son.He is in a similar fix with Katrina because his cruelty and remorseless indifference has been laid bare for all to see.
Humpty Dumpty has had a great fall and all the king’s men cannot put humpty dumpty back together again. That is what he fears most– being found out for the emptiness and shallowness at his very core.This is why he is making such frantic attempts to go back over and over again to NO to repair the damage to the levee of his soul.
You got it.
You are on the right track, finally, someone is saying what I’ve been saying forever: Bush is a sick person, barely functional as a normal rational person, living on the chuzpah of his punchy, mouthy character that has been reinforced by the unreality of the extreme privilege he’s grown up in. He never had to become an adult, and is certainly a dismissive snob just like his mother. He’s also quite unintelligent, and can’t grasp much.
I beg to differ with many friends who seem to think that this guy fakes his stupidity, and is just as complicit in the decisions of this administration as President Cheney and his staff of ghouls and death machines. No, sorry, Georgie is really dumb, below average, and hasn’t the ability to grasp much, including reality.
His callousness towards others absolutely has to do with his complete inability to succeed in a world where everyone he knew succeeded because of their privilege. He was a Class A fuck-up, cut up, generally mean, a doofus, and so the insane juxtaposition of being a fuck-up in a social world where he’d never really could fail created this monster. He’s happy to see others suffer, if he even registers the suffering of others, which I have serious doubts. They should suffer like he’s suffered the embarrassment of being a fuckup. The man is an angry crank, and remember, everything is scripted for him. About the only thing he’s been successful at is reading the script and acting it out for the effect of fooling the sycophants, believers and lapdog media.
So many commentators out there also don’t seem to understand much about the addict personality. What a shame. So much of Bush’s behavior has to do with his addictive nature.
He has no perception of ordinary people. He’s callous by nature, extremely egocentric, has a weak self-image conflated with a cocky personality based upon reliance on stupidity and divisiveness. Is this enough to see why he doesn’t see the suffering of others?
And one last note. Sure, he’s incompetent, but basically, remember, he’s not running the government, Cheney is, and Cheney is not incompetent, he’s (beyond) irresponsible, unresponsive, deeply callous, and completely corrupted by self-interest and paranoia. This response to Katrina and flooding is about indifference, not about incompetence.
is that his behavior to me is so obviously that of a practicing addict/alcoholic. Until his ego is smashed(could Katrina be the catalyst?)he will continue in this pattern of self importance. Quite frankly the biggest criminals in this man’s life are the indifferent parents that enabled this peon to move along this distructive path.
I recall a diary within the past month or so that attempted to diagnose Bush with Narcissistic personality disorder. I don’t recall who the author was, and did an extensive search of diaries to no avail. So I searched and found the diagnostic criteria. (I sincerely apologize to that diarist.) Here it is:
A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
To me, it seems as if Bush has almost all of these symptoms. He’s a sick bastard. This explains why our country is on the fast track to disaster. The sad fact is that Bush is unfit to be waterboy for a LittleLeague team, never mind President of the United States. Much will be written about this president, his legacy of hatred and destruction and death, and last but not least, his mental illness. I can’t bring myself to pity him, he is just a repulsive human being.
No.8 on your list is a critical one to understanding Bush. Even though he swaggers around thinking he is superman, he is intensely aware he is less than a zero when compared to people like Professor Tsurumi.He fears such men the most and directs his venom at them, using proxies because he is incapable of mounting a frontal assault on such men.
This is also why his proxies went after men like Gore,Kerry and Ambassador Wilson.
After I posted my first response to you, I happened to realize something else that makes Bush such a narcissistic person.He realizes that he is hollow, lacking in substance and terrified at the prospect of being found out.So he invents an anti-Bush who is compassionate, courageous,full of empathy for fello human beings and sets out his attack dogs to promote that personality for its political effect.This is why it is easy to see that while he professes his born again credentials he is not a religious person,while he professes to be a person who negotiates his intents are murderous and while he says he believes in free enterprise, risk taking is something he avoids.
In short, he is a phony.
It’s horrifying that Bush fits this profile so snugly. I just don’t know how much he realizes about himself consciously. If you believe some reports, behind the scenes he is like a precocious petulant child. No one wants to give him bad news. No one wants to correct him, so Bush’s personal world inside that bubble is much like the larger Republican echo chamber. Yet, I think you are correct that on some level, he knows what a zero he is and is scared to death of that fact.
I also think that he may have had a good role model for narcissism: Poppy Bush. I see many of the same traits in him… the whole family is nuts if you ask me. Just think… eventually they’ll try to shove Jeb down our throats.
I’m not feeling very hopeful today… the media is obediently going after the Gov Blanco as the big culprit, polls say that people don’t blame Bush, they’ll never tell us the truth about the death toll, and Bush is out running from photo op to photo op with the breathless press eating it all up.
I go back and forth between thinking that he is a sociopath and thinking he is a malignant narcissist surrounded by sociopaths. His mother strikes me as a sociopath. These people have no conscience, no ability to empathize, and they just go through the motions of civility. They’re bipedal, but they’re not human.