The Psychopath Test

by Jon Ronson

I picked up the book. It opened randomly to a double page filled with boxes, each containing a few Hebrew letters. ‘It’s a table of the seventy-two names of God,’ David said. ‘Look at this . . .’ He pointed haphazardly at a few. ‘That translates as David Shayler the Fish,’ he said. He pointed haphazardly at a few more. ‘That translates as David Shayler Righteous Chav,’ he said. ‘David Shayler Righteous Chav?’ I said. ‘God laughed his head off when He pointed that out to me,’ he said. ‘It was the first time God and I had ever laughed together.’ I looked down at the table of the seventy-two boxes. ‘Surely you’re finding a pattern where there are no patterns,’ I said. ‘Finding patterns is how Intelligence works,’ David snapped back. ‘It’s how research works. It’s how journalism works. The search for patterns. Don’t you see? That’s what you do!’