Arthur Brooks, professor and author of “Build The Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier“, joined Brian Kilmeade to discuss what he sees as a big psychological problem in the United States and how that is connected to the political divide. Brooks says there is a concept called a dark triad, which is a combination of three personality characteristics that happens in 7% of the population, which are narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Brooks explained how under normal circumstances, they’re not rewarded, people don’t like them and avoid them. In certain circumstances where these malignant narcissistic bullies actually can take over the political system, Brooks says, that’s what you start to see on both right and left and that’s what we have in America today which is making us nuts.
Brooks believes politics has been driving us crazy, making us anxious and actually depressed and part of the reason is because you have political parties and media telling people that if somebody disagrees with you, you got to cut them off. Brooks said 1 in 6 Americans are not talking to a family member because of politics. Brooks feels that mentality is insanity because family is one of the core parts of the happiness equation and you can’t be happy if you start cutting family members off. The only reason to cut off a family member according to Brooks is if there is abuse and differences of political opinion are not abuse.
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