Sociopathic groups always fail

I am sickened by the sadism evident in the killing of your young pilot, Muath Kasasbeh. My heart goes out to the Jordanian people at this time.

The facts of his murder are so horrific that they compel us to think about the nature of the people who did this.

The so-called Islamic State group is clearly a sociopath marked by mass murder, sadism and cruelty of the highest order, all elaborately documented.

It has apocalyptic delusions that it is creating the “end state” of history that will conquer the world. Anyone who resists, or is half hearted, is the “other” and should be eliminated.

People like this regard deep culture, artefacts and traditions outside their own rigid ideologies as abominations that should be destroyed.

Human life has no value, including the lives of their own people. Only the “vision” has value.

Immense energy is invested in creating beliefs (fantasies) that allow such groups’ foot soldiers to embrace oblivion. They seek, cult-like, not just to control the media, but to control the minds of their populations.

They are fuelled by hatred of any person or idea outside the cult and by a confected quasi-religious idea: a vengeful malicious god, a perfect and never changing “heaven on earth”.

Such organisations are created by sociopaths in the interests of sociopaths. They have no interest in good governance or any of the mundane things that ordinary, plodding, not so pure governments concern themselves with. They are shame based.

Everything is about image. The social losers who left Australia to fight for Islamic State bear this out.

The dreadful death of your pilot was in response to the shame brought about by the fact that the Japanese would not negotiate.

The Islamic State’s response that “the nightmare now begins for Japan” deserves analysis by professional psychiatrists. It is the enraged scream of an infant psychopath.

This group does not wish to exist into the future, which is all about the difficult business of coexisting with other nations. Its statement demonstrates that its bedrock psychology is that of the suicide bomber. There is no real tomorrow.

The final thing sociopathic organisations have in common is that they fail, and usually in the most terrible way, involving mass murders, wars, destruction and the displacement of millions.

They fail because they are pathological visions to start with and they do not account for human nature, which cannot stand the rigid vision of others imposed from without, and will eventually rebel.

They also fail because they are cults, and their drive for ideological purity necessarily creates murderous factions that in their battle for hegemony will seek the elimination of their rivals over the conquest of their common enemies every time.

They implode, but not before causing untold destruction and human agony.

I have always had a soft spot for Jordan, even though I have never visited your country. The government has always seemed measured, balanced and empathetic with the population.

Jordan has extended protection to many displaced people. I really wish you the best and I hope that this terrible incident will not arouse hatreds that will endanger your very functional (which is really all we can ask for) country.

Jo Parsons,
NSW Australia