Welcome To Psychopath Economics – An Ebook On Power, ‘The 1%’ And Its Threat To Humanity

BROADSTAIRS, U.K. - June 19, 2015 - PRLog -- The West’s economic and political system is increasingly psychopathic, and is dominated by a relentless elite which wants an ever-greater share of wealth and power, claims UK journalist Peter Batt in the first instalment of Psychopath Economics (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/548817).

Many public figures have been branded as psychopaths over the years, and psychopathic personality types are disproportionately found in positions of power.

But Peter Batt argues that such people are where they are because they reflect the logic of power itself, therefore posing a major problem for society. This problem originates from the 'reality gap' between the psychopath’s engaging and charismatic persona on the one hand, and their brazen, predatory and manipulative behaviour on the other. It's a reality gap that often confounds those watching on and is as likely to stun society into confused acquiescence as provoke effective opposition.

This picture is further confused by the role of belief systems, which attribute meaning, and seek to explain and justify. In today’s information age, the elite’s favoured belief system is neoliberalism, an economic enterprise that presents inequality as natural, inevitable and unchallengable.

Written in four parts, Psychopath Economics (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/548817) looks at how the logic of power, belief systems and consumption patterns combine to drive the rise and fall of societies. Peter Batt uses this to argue that today's global civilisation is some way along its downward spiral and that a call to action is needed if the growing risks of social breakdown and environmental exhaustion are to be addressed.

However, effective action is likely to require campaigns that go beyond the traditional democratic system, because psychopathic power makes no concession without a threat.

Only campaigns that challenge the elite's assets – such as civil and consumer ‘disobedience’, grassroots debt jubilees, ‘brandalism’ and wholesale bank reform – are likely to have any effect.

Part 1 of Psychopath Economics (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/548817) is now available. It outlines the whole book before looking at today’s mainstream economics narrative as a means of concealing the unequal exercise of power, its consequences and the motivations of those who wield it.

Using the market imagery of the bull, the faceless power of capital, and Walter Lippmann’s concept of the ‘bewildered herd’, Peter Batt argues that much of today’s economics narrative is hopelessly skewed in favour of the elite’s dominance at the direct expense of wider society. And he singles out neoliberalism as the ultimate expression of economics by the psychopath, for the psychopath.

A free sample and the full version of Part 1 is available here (https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/548817). Quote code YK67Q for a 20% discount (expires on July 1). Parts 2 to 4 will be published over the course of this year.

About the author
Peter Batt is a journalist with a career spanning nearly 30 years. Most recently, he was managing editor of the international ethical business magazine Ethical Performance (http://www.ethicalperformance.com/).

About Smashwords
Founded in 2008, Smashwords (https://www.smashwords.com/) is the leading distributor of self-published ebooks. Smashwords distributes to major online retailers such as the Apple iBookstore, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Kobo, Baker & Taylor Blio, Page Foundry and the Diesel eBook Store.