It is quite funny how rich & powerful people can become so pathetically pretentious. This pattern of "I am immensely smart, clairvoyant and blessed just becaus

It is quite funny how rich & powerful people can become so pathetically pretentious. This pattern of "I am immensely smart, clairvoyant and blessed just because I'm slightly richer or more powerful than you" is something you can find everywhere: middle managers, tribal chiefs in Papua and Africa, warlords in the Middle East, gangsters in Latin America, "stable genius" politicians in North America, soccer players and pop stars in Europe, etc. It seems there is some self-reinforcing mechanism at play here: to become powerful first you need to convince others that you are powerful and convincingly pretend to be powerful.