The Gamma Wizard

How to see through the word spells

A reader listed eight of the Gamma tells in a comment posted by the most recently banned Gamma. He wasn’t the first, he won’t be the last, but he has served an educational purpose. Here were two of them:

• Projecting intentions on others and criticizing them on the basis of these notional, presumed intentions.

• Moral posturing. The people he disagrees with or do things he dislikes are not only very bad people, they are literally psychopaths.

Another reader pointed out correctly that both of these Gamma tactics are also utilized by the rhetorically skilled individuals that Owen Benjamin describes as wizards in his new bestseller, HOW TO SLAY A WIZARD.

Big Bear mentions both of those as commonly used wizard tactics in his book, How to Slay a Wizard. Vox, what overlap would you estimate there is between what Owen terms “wizards” and gammas?

I think Gammas are the larval form of wizards. It’s akin to the difference between being sinful and being wicked. The Gamma can’t really help himself. His behavioral pattern is natural to him, his dishonesty is reflexive, and his attempts to manipulate others are automatic.

Wizards, on the other hand, are self-aware and intentional in their dishonesty and manipulations. They take great pleasure and derive a particular sense of power from their ability to deceive others with their word spells. Unlike the Gamma, they operate under no delusions about themselves; their illusions are externally directed rather than internal.

I think most wizards are Gammas in terms of their core behavioral patterns, but they have been able to successfully weaponize and externalize their lies. Essentially, a wizard is a Gamma who is able to convince others of what used to be his own delusions.

And certainly, if we look at the personal histories of the wizards chronicled by Big Bear, their lives certainly provide evidence that they tend to be relatively low-status, unattractive individuals whose only successes depended upon their word spells.

Saul Alinsky was a true believer in the possibilities of American democracy as a means to social justice. He saw it as a great political game among competing interests, a game in which there are few fixed boundaries and where the rules could be changed to help make losers into winners and vice versa.

Speaking of wizards, I should point out that for a limited time, you can acquire a leatherbound Signed First Edition of HOW TO SLAY A WIZARD by Owen Benjamin. These are special editions that are only produced once.

• Arkhaven Store

• NDM Express