HOW TO STOP HIGH-CONFLICT POLITICIANS
Now we have some answers to the three questions I posed in the first chapter:
1. CAN ONE HIGH-CONFLICT POLITICIAN TURN A WELL-FUNCTIONING COMMUNITY—OR NATION—INTO ONE THAT IS EXTREMELY POLARIZED? IF SO, HOW DOES THIS OCCUR? YES! We have seen this occur in each of the examples I described in Part II. These HCPs start by immediately attacking individuals and groups within their communities or countries and teaching their followers to do the same; this includes encouraging individual acts of violence. You might challenge the idea that these Wannabe Kings arose in “well”-functioning communities, but none of the communities or countries described here were as bad off before their Wannabe Kings stepped in as they were afterward. As we have seen, the followers of Wannabe Kings are not usually starving; rather, they are resentful of others succeeding. HCPs know how to charm, con, and manipulate these followers without empathy or remorse.
2. IN A TIME OF PEACE, CAN ONE HIGH-CONFLICT POLITICIAN LEAD A NATION INTO WAR, FAMINE, AND GENOCIDE? IF SO, HOW DOES THIS OCCUR? Again, YES! As the historians have told us, only Hitler wanted World War II. Only Stalin wanted the forced collectivization of Ukraine in a manner that killed approximately four million people. Only Mao wanted the Cultural Revolution that killed approximately seven million people. The advisers around each of these Wannabe Kings tried to stop them, and some paid with their lives.
3. CAN WE STOP HIGH-CONFLICT POLITICIANS BEFORE THEY GET THIS FAR? Again, the answer is YES! But in order to do so, people need to understand the dangers, the deceptions, and the dynamics of high-conflict politicians, and they need to learn how to counteract them in today’s high-emotion-media world that favors them. That is what Part III of this book is all about.
The following chapters are addressed to everyone, including candidates for office running against an HCP, people campaigning for someone running against an HCP, and voters who see warning signs of an HCP and want to alert other voters.
This information applies in any election, including as a group leader in the workplace, a community committee like a school board or homeowners association, and a city, state, or national office. The reality is that HCPs want to be “kings” at all levels, but it’s easier to see the reality of their patterns at the lower levels, because their Fantasy Crisis Triads don’t fit with obvious reality. At national levels its easier for them to create and maintain their fantasies for quite a while, so long as they can keep their realities hidden.