Is Key a Psychopath?

I know what I think.

I was watching an Australian programme, a series about murderers and psychopaths. The previous programme or two had been focused on psychopaths who murdered, but last night the audience are informed that not all psychopaths become murderers or even criminals - at least not the kind of criminals who usually wind up in prison. Those kind of psychopaths are the unfortunates often brought up in dysfunctional families, perhaps abused, sexually or violently so that the traits of psychopathology exhibit more extremely. Traits of psychopathology often run in families but I guess at this point we could start arguing nature or nurture. But what when our psychopath is born into a more normal family, when nothing in particular, nothing out of the ordinary happens to him (or her)? According to the programme (and I have read this stuff before in a book years back but I am reminded again), there are many psychopaths in this world, many psychopaths grow up to be leaders, they may be risk takers, they do particularly well in the banking world (any of this sound familiar folks?). They are liars. An expert on the programme said you can tell a psychopath by his eyes, when he is confronted, you will see the eyes of a snake (her words), the eyes go flat and hard, there's no light on them. We saw film of a psychopathic murderer in court, when he turned to look at his accusers his eyes did indeed go flat and hard. Like a snake.

Before he became a politician. Key was a banker. He worked for Merrill Lynch, where he became head of Global Foreign Exchange. In 1999 he became a member of the Foreign Exchange of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He made money speculating with other people's money.

The first time I recall observing this phenomenon in Key was late one night when I wound up watching Key being interviewed by a BBC journalist. An excellent interviewer too. No touching of the fetlock here. No letting Key off with yet another of his flip remarks. Instead he pushed and pushed Key. The subject was New Zealand's environment and our "Pure New Zealand" slogan. "But it's not true, is it?" said the interviewer, citing a well-respected New Zealand scientist. Key's eyes go hard and flat. One can feel the rage being held down. "That's his opinion," said Key relegating the eminent scientist to the great unwashed where Key apparently believes he belongs, down here with the rest of us masses, objects in Key's world.

Most of the time when we see Key on the telly, he answers in flip manner. He's been caught telling lies many times. He pretends to not remember things when it suits. He laughs at serious questions, show little respect for his constituency. And yet people vote for him. We live in a strange world.

Lately Key wants us to send soldiers to fight ISIL. "It's the price we pay for being members of the club," he says.