Successful Sociopaths

Read these two headlines:

• White House Implements Stringent Mask Policy - But Not For Trump.
• Tesla's Elon Musk Reopens Factory, Defying County Orders And Daring Officials To Arrest Him.

Sociopaths struggle to see the humanity or worth in others. Other people are simply agents for their own agenda. Sociopaths can usually learn to fake it well enough to "get along" in wider society, and many can be quite successful. Their struggles to see value in other people gives them a competitive advantage. Look at Trump's willingness to stiff vendors and contractors and to declare bankruptcy whenever he can.  He just never cared about the impact of his actions on others.

It would seem, though, that if you ARE a sociopath, maybe we shouldn't hand massive amounts of political or economic power over to you.  Maybe that leads to a fundamentally flawed society.  If you take the perspective that other people are expendable pawns in your game, you're unlikely to be a good leader, regardless of your bank account's bottom line.

And it might lead to decisions like this one.