Sunday, November 02, 2014

Psychopaths rule

Can the world get any crazier? Yes it can.

In 1982, the Home Office tested how the UK would cope after 300 megatons of nuclear bombs have been dropped within a 16-hour period. The detailed top-secret exercise, which was named ‘ Operation Regenerate’, imagined many cities flattened, millions killed by the blast and millions more suffering from radiation sickness. It focused on the six-months after the attack in Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire. Officials in the exercise predicted how “rings of damage” would hit parts of the country, looking at where epicentres of the nuclear bombs would be. Advisers suggested approximately half of the country would remain untouched by the blasts. Although for the Royal Family they would be taken to a secret hideaway on board the Royal Yacht and would be using a Scottish loch to shelter in for safety from a strike. [SOYMB hopes it would be the Holy Loch, home of the submarine fleet, and a prime first strike target]

Meanwhile, disorder would hit the streets of the worst-affected areas, where resources would be low. The report imagined vigilante groups emerging in the days and weeks after, a weak administration and uncertainty over who would lead any industry that survived. Maintaining law and order would become increasingly difficult.

Jane Hogg, a scientific officer in the Home Office, suggested that the police should recruit psychopaths to help restore order. She wrote: “It is... generally accepted that around one per cent of the population are psychopaths. These are the people who could be expected to show no psychological effects in the communities which have suffered the severest losses.” Hogg suggested psychopaths would be "very good in crises" because "they have no feelings for others, nor moral code, and tend to be very intelligent and logical".

Perhaps her idea has indeed been adopted by the various government departments responsible for the health, welfare and immigration services. It would certainly seem so by their actions.


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