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Konkvistador comments on On Leverage Research's plan for an optimal world - Less Wrong Discussion

25 Post author: Mitchell_Porter 10 January 2012 09:49AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 11 January 2012 12:31:19PM *  9 points [-]

Most positions of power are already occupied by people who have common sense, good will, and a sense of responsibility - or they have those traits, to the extent that human frailty manages to preserve them, amidst the unpredictability of life.

Wait you are serious? I'm pretty sure a larger than normal fraction of people that rule us are sociopaths.

The idea that a magic new theory of psychology will unlock human potential and create a new political majority of model citizens is a secular messianism with nothing to back it up.

I'm happy people here realize this.

Comment author: ESRogs 13 January 2012 01:01:40AM 3 points [-]

I'm pretty sure a larger than normal fraction of people that rule us are sociopaths.

What makes you think that? I'd have guessed that a lot of the non-optimal decisions made by people in various positions of power are the result of normal human biases mixed with whatever incentives pertain to their situation.

Comment author: jmmcd 14 January 2012 04:38:44AM 1 point [-]

I'm pretty sure a larger than normal fraction of people that rule us are sociopaths.

I've seen some speculation about this, but even if it's true, and the proportion is larger by an order of magnitude than in the background population, it's still a lot less than "most".

I don't think sociopathy or malice is really a good explanation of what goes wrong, when it does go wrong, among people of power.

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