I have been thinking about the amount of low level crime that goes on among “nice” people…..people who do things that are illegal, bragging and laughing about it as though it elevates them to a special strata of society because they are smart enough to get away with it.
I’m thinking of a woman’s husband who brags about tearing up his numerous speeding tickets because he “knows the right people.” He also brags about not paying any property taxes on his very spacious elegant home (complete with hollow columns) because he “knows the right people”.
His wife used to receive an executive salary in cash to avoid paying income tax. They would brag about it and about how smart they were to outsmart everything and everybody. Are they low-level sociopaths? There was a pattern of chronic violations of rules and laws, along with the pattern of thinking that entitled them these exemptions. Superoptimisim and a sense of invincibility along with justifications such as “everybody is doing it” often accompanied their bragging.
He won’t ever get caught or be forced to do the right thing because he knows all the right people! The “right people” are dispensing favors to receive favors from another group of “right people”. The city in which all this occurs is rife with corruption and such practices are common.
I think a lot of this goes on. I think sociopaths are more common than we would like to think. I don’t agree with the statistics commonly quoted, but that’s just my unscientific personal opinion. The sociopath who puts their spouse, friend, neighbor, relative, or employee, through hell will be the guy others know superficially or in some incidental capacity. They might see signs and patterns, but short of some violent criminal act personally involving them, they will move on to the demands of the day and dismiss it.
