Politics and the System

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i think one of the things that we don't appreciate enough is how the system helps determine who actually puts their hat in the ring. When they ran a study in india, where the civil service is notoriously corrupt and there's lots of bribes, the people who d on the dice rolls were disproportionately drawn to being a civil servant. And i also encountered this in my own field work when when i went to places like tyland, where politics is extremely dangerous. I see this in these videos that are now becoming more and more common of school board members being given death threats based on n their attempt to follow public health guidance. You know, you'd better be ready to deal with crazy people

Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the result of poorly designed systems or are they simply bad people? What sort of people aspire to power anyway? Are there individuals among us who should never be given the title of president, or CEO, or PTA leader lest they build their own dictatorship?

Michael Shermer speaks with Brian Klaas, a renowned political scientist, Washington Post columnist and creator of the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, about his long sought answers to the above questions.

In his new book Klaas draws on over 500 interviews with some of the world’s top leaders — from the noblest to the most crooked — including presidents and philanthropists as well as rebels, cultists, and dictators, to get to the root of power and corruption. Klaas dives into how facial appearance determines who we pick as leaders, why narcissists make more money, why some people don’t want power at all and others are drawn to it out of a psychopathic impulse, and why being the “beta” (second in command) may be the optimal place for health and well-being.