We Are Ruled by Psychopaths

Perhaps it's time to try something else. (DN 4.16)

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Lord Acton’s famous quote has become a dictum of political thought. Power, so the conventional wisdom goes, has a corrupting effect.

That is clearly true. Powerful people experience temptations and incentives that the rest of us do not. They can tell people what to do. They can spend other …