TRANQUIL READER

Review - Kings, Conquerors, Psychopaths by Joseph Abraham

By Carmen, 23 August 2021

Genre: Nonfiction, Human Analysis

Year Published: 2020

Blurb:

Xenophobia. Racism. Fascism. Intolerance. Inhumanity. Coercion.

Right wing populists increasingly draw attention around the globe, but the attention is misdirected. The real problem is not the authoritarian, but the authoritarian personalities who follow him. If people do not blindly follow and obey the despot, he is irrelevant.

Why do we attach ourselves to demagogues and mountebanks? Why do we defend even their most obvious hypocrisies and lies?

The answer is found in the history of civilization. For the past 10,000 years, those who disagreed with the king or his nobles risked ruin and death.

But that is only part of the answer. The other part is that, despite our romantic traditions, kings and conquerors were vicious criminals. They represent the most evil psychopaths, narcissists, and sadists in the history of humanity.

About the Author:

Dr. Abraham graduated from UL-Lafayette and earned his M. D. at Tulane University. An E. R. doctor for over 30 years, Dr. Abraham previously authored Happiness: A Physician/Biologist Looks at Life (2000) and peer-reviewed articles in Evolutionary Biology.

He recently retired and moved to Europe.

Connect with the Author:

Author Website: Joseph Abraham Author Website

*Please note that this is the only link I have for the author

Buy the Book:

Amazon: Amazon Purchase Link

My Take on the Book:

There were small sections of this book that I enjoyed – though I felt that some of the viewpoints were too black and white. Yes, there are definitely nasty people out there – ones that have no limit to greed, lust for power, and generally treating people like trash, etc., but there’s also decent people out there as well – ones that might have some aspect or level of these traits, but that are more middle of the road rather than outright inhumane people.

I might be a bit naïve, but I’m of the opinion (not counting the inhumane people), that everyone else has a mixture of good and not-so-great in them. That’s how people are created – with good traits and flaws. Not even people that are really revered in society or in history have only got good in them, they’ve also got flaws as well.

And yes, the rest of us are probably pre-disposed to cower when we come into contact with some of these inhumane people – or; hopefully some of us are able to avoid them for a lot of the time. Content warning: there is some graphic descriptions. The book overall was well put together.

Despite having my own thoughts about the book, I ended up giving it a four star rating and got a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Last Word:

I would be interested to see what this author comes up with in the future.

Enjoy,
Carmen