John Major, right, in 1996, John Naughton, centre, observing: “The amazing thing about Major, though, is that he didn’t go crazy
(unlike Thatcher before him and Blair afterwards). In fact he remained a
perfectly normal person. On the day after his 1997 defeat, for
example, he went off to watch cricket at the Oval.”
John Naughton:
I have a theory about this hubris. Great wealth does strange things to people — and to those around them. It’s a combination of aphrodisiac and reality-distortion field. Immensely rich (or powerful) people think they are rich (or powerful) because they’re very special. And the people around them think that if someone is immensely rich or powerful they must be smart. And so there’s a kind of positive feedback loop that intensifies with time.
That’s bad enough when the wealthy are middle-aged. But when the money arrives at a point when the recipient is barely out of short trousers — as, for example, with some of the Silicon Valley crowd, then not only do they think they’re geniuses, but so too do those around them, not to mention the journalists who fawn upon them. Live like that for a while and you go bananas.
That’s why political leaders go crazy after a while. They’re surrounded by people who admire them, or look as if they do.
I once had an interesting demonstration of this. …*
20210304T0928−08*
*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the post archive*