Sociopath Community

In the wrong hands that ideology could be simultaneously destructive and self destructive, but that depends on what the practice is used for.

I have a friend who pretty much is swinging very close to the rocks. He became fanatical about what he learned in the book The 48 Laws of Power. ( AKA the book of assholes )

Basically he became very confrontational and imposed onto others that his will be done in every aspect of his life and it backfired on him 7 fold. He's been kicked out of parent committees at his childs elementary school. Slashed off the board in his neighborhood gatherings, wife left him, he has an inflated sense of self etc. 

His problem is that he's obnoxious. He'll try to fix what doesn't need fixing and end up ruining whatever it is he touches.

One time I bought him a bong, as he never used one at the time, and within hours he was a self proclaimed expert on bongs. He started putting frozen fruit in the water and insisting it was making the bong better. I told him he was wasting money and the fruit doesn't do anything. He then would send his lady to the grocery store to buy more frozen berries. He refused to be reasonable.

Then after every single use, he would dump the bong water after wasting the frozen fruit and he would rinse out the bong with boiling hot water. After telling him how it's not necessary to use boiling water to wash the thing, he insisted it was the way.

The bong then broke. The heat eventually caused the neck of the bong to crack right off. Instead of expressing humility he instantly determined that he doesn't like bongs. I did fuse the bong together with superglue and the hairline crack is unnoticeable, but he refuses to use it again. A once splendid gift now sits in his home tormenting him on a count of his own irrationality. 

While I don't deny it's healthy to be enthusiastic about our goals, zealotry is a force that can command poverty into one's life as our wealth and income is dependant on our ability to cooperate and function alongside others. As for my friend, pride continues to drag him down. It came to a point where I keep him at a distance, and I leave an open channel to the possibility that he may one day go on a psychotic rampage.   

Spatial Mind said: 

In the wrong hands that ideology could be simultaneously destructive and self destructive, but that depends on what the practice is used for.

I have a friend who pretty much is swinging very close to the rocks. He became fanatical about what he learned in the book The 48 Laws of Power. ( AKA the book of assholes )

Basically he became very confrontational and imposed onto others that his will be done in every aspect of his life and it backfired on him 7 fold. He's been kicked out of parent committees at his childs elementary school. Slashed off the board in his neighborhood gatherings, wife left him, he has an inflated sense of self etc. 

His problem is that he's obnoxious. He'll try to fix what doesn't need fixing and end up ruining whatever it is he touches.

One time I bought him a bong, as he never used one at the time, and within hours he was a self proclaimed expert on bongs. He started putting frozen fruit in the water and insisting it was making the bong better. I told him he was wasting money and the fruit doesn't do anything. He then would send his lady to the grocery store to buy more frozen berries. He refused to be reasonable.

Then after every single use, he would dump the bong water after wasting the frozen fruit and he would rinse out the bong with boiling hot water. After telling him how it's not necessary to use boiling water to wash the thing, he insisted it was the way.

The bong then broke. The heat eventually caused the neck of the bong to crack right off. Instead of expressing humility he instantly determined that he doesn't like bongs. I did fuse the bong together with superglue and the hairline crack is unnoticeable, but he refuses to use it again. A once splendid gift now sits in his home tormenting him on a count of his own irrationality. 

While I don't deny it's healthy to be enthusiastic about our goals, zealotry is a force that can command poverty into one's life as our wealth and income is dependant on our ability to cooperate and function alongside others. As for my friend, pride continues to drag him down. It came to a point where I keep him at a distance, and I leave an open channel to the possibility that he may one day go on a psychotic rampage.   

Let's analyze your ex-friend based on the information provided in your post.

1. Never take the information from any source, like in a book, as truth. It is simply data to analyze. It may or may not work. Or it may require changes and adaptations, maybe it's out of date, or doesn't fit your situation or your style, or maybe it has a few errors. Or it can be totally wrong, in that case, it is good to know which data is wrong as well. Altho it is arguably not a cost-effective use of your time (learning wrong data, takes too long and gives little value).
2. Seems like he didn't test and make sure that his path is the right one. Before you became fanatical, you must learn to make near 0 mistakes. He sounds like he made many, many mistakes.
3. Where is his stopping mechanism? After the first bigger mistake it should trigger. He has no vision of the grand campaign(he did not think his moves ahead well enough or at all).
4. I know nothing of bongs, so for all, I know he may have been right.
5. Breaking the bong after using cold then hot water is common sense. I believe your friend has much bigger problems rooted in his own stupidity. I have yet to find a good cure for it. I only know of the death cure. When someone is too ill of stupidity disease, he can't learn from his mistakes ever and can't ever see why he is wrong on his own accord and will never listen to others. What options are left? The final option.

It is not about being enthusiastic. I often lack enthusiasm, but fanatism gives me the power I need to push back all obstacles. It is important you set your rules and boundaries right. You must know yourself before you can get comfortable to use zeal as your source of power.

It is dangerous and risky. But that's why it's also profitable.
And as any risky task, you must prepare beforehand. Your friend lacks all preparation:

• he had no clear rules and boundaries to his goal
• he did not have a stopping mechanism
• he did not prepare (testing his methods for example)
• he did not know himself and therefor cant set goals appropriately
• he is not bright, but if he knew himself, he could have fixed this one way or another (either becoming smart, which is hard/impossible at certain levels in different fields for different people, or compensating where he lacks with another method)

Use it as a tool, not a way of life.

As it turned out the bong was made of tinted glass, and he insisted on using boiling hot water to clean it. The thing I was pointing out with that story is his fanatical nature when it comes to things, and the kind of results he gets from it.

As you mentioned the first time and again, yes it is risky to do that. It is in a sense measuring how much of a pushover others are. An awareness of the other person's outlook on the interaction is a requirement to pull off fanatical procedures on them, lest they get rubbed the wrong way. I personally proceed with caution when something doesn't seem right, though there is still a chance I would go along with a fanatical suggestions, but only if I think the suggestion is a good one. 

Spatial Mind said: 

As it turned out the bong was made of tinted glass, and he insisted on using boiling hot water to clean it. The thing I was pointing out with that story is his fanatical nature when it comes to things, and the kind of results he gets from it.

As you mentioned the first time and again, yes it is risky to do that. It is in a sense measuring how much of a pushover others are. An awareness of the other person's outlook on the interaction is a requirement to pull off fanatical procedures on them, lest they get rubbed the wrong way. I personally proceed with caution when something doesn't seem right, though there is still a chance I would go along with a fanatical suggestions, but only if I think the suggestion is a good one. 

Yes, your point is well made. I like to view failures and find out why they failed, thus you can avoid future failures.

Whether it matters if something rubs people the wrong way or not depends on your goal and cost-effectiveness. If your goal can be achieved while you rub people the wrong way and it is still cost-effective (not too tiring or wasteful of other resources), then it is irrelevant how you rub the people.

If you go along with a fanatical suggestion, you must never doubt your decision until a major mistake is made, or the boundaries/rules you set are broken. It is important to remember that if you approach it with caution.