We Are Sick of Psychopaths

‘Lucky Strikes’ for #FreedomMusicFriday

We cannot know precisely what was in a musician's or lyricist’s mind when they wrote a particular song. We can surmise and imagine, but unless the artist graces us with an explanation, we cannot know for sure.

Since many of us here on Substack know and love

Tesstamona

, we can just go ask her what exactly she wanted to convey with her new song “Lucky Strikes.” I mean, I think I know, but there’s no substitute for hearing it directly from the artist. Then again, I would like to try my hand at an interpretation, and then maybe Tess will tell me how close to the mark I got.

Or maybe my interpretation—what the song means to each individual listener—is what matters most. Maybe the meaning that each of us derives from a piece of art is as important as the artist’s intent. (I’m sure that debate has happened in more than one college class and candlelit room over the last few centuries.)

Whether the song is more personal or political, it clearly casts psychopathic oppressors as the villains of the story.

Beware the midnight prowler
with red swollen eyes
a bloodlust for power
and a pack of Lucky Strikes

Bloodlust for power certainly manifests in both the personal and political realms, and we need to be on the lookout for both. And in our so-called “civilized” world, those who lust for power are able to get away with a lot more:

Civilized men
are worse than savages
they know they can violate
without
having their skulls split

It may sound harsh, but the claim here is entirely accurate, especially in the realm of politics. So-called ‘democratic’ systems (yes, even our constitutional-republican kind) allow those in power to engage in rights violations that no one would ever get away with in a state of nature—at least not without a fight.

Indeed, Tess here has hit upon one of the deepest, ugliest, and most insidious problems with modern governance: it grants government officials special rights. It gives them the authority to do things that the rest of us are legally and morally forbidden from doing—things that really would get one’s skull split in any other circumstance.

And yet modern people beg for it. Crave it. Tell us we cannot possibly live without it.

But Tess is no such slave, and it seems to my ears that she’s had enough of it…

Where does it end
lines in the sand

And then, referring to those lines in the sand…

we crossed em thousands of miles ago
they're too well entertained to take note

Did our psychopathic overlords cross the line? Did we let them? Did we ask for it?

And were we—are we—too addled by bread and circuses to care?

At what point have we had enough? At what point are we ready to do something about it? After all, on its YouTube page, the song is called a “hymn of vengeance”:

into my own hands
I'm thinkin' bout doin the most

Whether the oppression is personal or political, we want out. And sometimes we think about what it would mean to take the necessary steps to get out.

At the end of the day, it’s ALL personal. Every single person under the thumb of every government throughout history has been an individual. A person with his or her own hopes and dreams, thoughts, and choices. A person denied full communion with those choices by an endless stream of overlords.

The next line hits hard.

damned if you do
and damned if you don’t

This is the conundrum we face—one we will be discussing at length in the next big chapter of The Distributed Nation: revolutionary overthrow, as justified as it may be, is highly problematic.

As I will explain, if we were to attempt it, we would violate several of our own moral principles, and we would likely fail anyway. If we do nothing, we are doomed to another century, another millennium, of the same oppression under which we’ve lived (to varying degrees of severity) for most of recorded history. Damned if we do; damned if we don’t.

As it turns out, there may be a way to break free from this damnation conundrum, through evolution and a long-game strategy. We have been having that discussion in bits and pieces, and we will start putting it all together soon.

Still, revolutionary overthrow would be the least that these villains deserve.

Civilized men
are worse than savages
they know they can hide their ways
behind mimicking emotions

She is surely referring here to psychopaths.

Psychopaths aren’t just psychopaths because they were abused by weirdo parents when they were children. Structural psychopathology is a neurological phenomenon wherein certain parts of the brain are damaged or under-functioning: specifically, the areas that mediate important emotions like conscience, empathy, and restraint.

But, as Tess notes, successful psychopaths are able to mimic those emotions.

Psychopaths—who make up only a small fraction of the general population—are, unsurprisingly, overrepresented among the ranks of criminals. That would be bad enough on its own, but unfortunately, they are also drawn to, and overrepresented in, the halls of power.

Psychopaths are a problem, and by creating a “civilized” pathway for them to rule the rest of us “legitimately,” we are the architects of our own repression.

Except it’s not all of us. I have woken up to this racket. I know

Tesstamona

has. And you likely have too, or you are beginning to…otherwise, you wouldn’t be here.

But others haven’t. Indeed, others still argue that we are slaves in need of masters:

parasitic entities
possess those around me

And those of us who have awoken are losing a touch of patience with the possessed and sleeping masses.

the times we live for are not to be shrugged off
won't pretend it's love and light just to coddle your delusions

We can walk and chew gum at the same time. It is possible to recognize that the American Revolution was a watershed moment in the story of freedom without believing that it was the final chapter in that story. They were on to something, but the work is not yet finished.

What the next chapter of the human journey will look like is not entirely clear. We are writing it now. Chances are, it will not look like 1776.

But make no mistake: the feeling in this song—the urge for righteous vengeance—is justified.

(UPDATE: The official music video has just launched. See below!)