The Corrosive Psychological Effects of Power and Wealth

Is there a better example anywhere of the old adage that ‘power corrupts’ than Elon Musk?  He may be an entrepreneurial and technical genius, but he has also clearly become a horrible human being. Or perhaps he always was and it just took a little time to fully blossom.  

And he’s not the only one.  There is an ever-growing cesspool of tech and finance billionaires who feel justified in forcing their political and personal foibles on the world through their immense wealth and connections. 

 

There are many historical examples of similarly nasty characters whose wealth and power gave them license to propagate their paranoid, deviant or delusional fantasies – Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, to name a few.  And if one looks closely at almost every super-rich person one can find an astonishing sense of entitlement and superiority.  

 

Not surprisingly, fantastic wealth and power are associated with a set of inter-linked psychological traits that psychologists have called the ‘dark triad’ – Machiavellianism, psychopathy and narcissism.  Studies have demonstrated that the rich and powerful exhibit these traits much more often than other groups. 

 

Someone who is Machiavellian uses manipulation and deceit to gain power or control.  This trait allows one to rationalize amoral or less-than-ethical means to achieve goals.  A psychopath is a person who lacks empathy, is callous and egocentric, but who may mask these traits by superficial charm and an outward appearance of normalcy.  A narcissist is a person who is extremely self-centered and has a persistent and exaggerated sense of self-importance.

 

Whether these traits are ‘nature or nurture’ is not entirely known.  It could be that these are simply the traits that enable these people to acquire riches and power and that they were at least partially present from birth.  But there is no doubt that being surrounded by massive wealth and by sycophants who provide a continuous stream of praise and adulation plays havoc with one’s version of reality.

 

There are counter-examples of course – Warren Buffett comes to mind, and Bill Gates may have mastered his inner demons in recent years and become one as well.  But these appear to be few and far between.  I would also guess that the appearance of humility or quasi-normal behavior in almost any super-rich person is a façade.    

 

I have often criticized the billionaire class.  The ultra-rich would accuse me of 'class envy', the term that they often invoke to demean those who suggest that their wealth is both unmerited and unhealthy.  But the increasingly blatant use of wealth and power by the super-rich to push their own political agendas or ideology is deeply troubling.  It is clearly in lock-step with the over-accumulation of the world’s riches by ever-fewer people.  We are returning to a primitive world where tyrants and despots pull the strings and orchestrate our political and economic life rather than allowing the collective wisdom of the people and their representatives guide us.  If this obscene imbalance of income and wealth is not corrected the future will be rather grim.