In a 1933 essay lamenting the rise of Nazism in Germany, Bertrand Russell wrote: "The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”

Which is of course a dynamic that's still at play in the modern world; the Dunning-Kruger effect is a thing, and one need only to look at American presidents to see that there's little relationship between one's intelligence and how far they can rise if they get it in their heads that they ought to be in charge of things.

But I think a much bigger factor in the problems our world faces is not so much about intelligence as empathy.

Reading by Tim Foley.

Article version: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/the-sociopaths-are-cocksure-while