Sam Harris
Feb 05, 2025
Does the world still need good people, or are we all free to become monsters now?
It may seem priggish to say it, given the current “vibe shift,” but we really can’t give up on personal integrity just yet. The day we celebrate our children for their selfishness and cruelty will be the point of no return.
Clearly, we need systems and institutions that can withstand the intrusions of a charismatic psychopath. We also need ones that can resist when otherwise normal people behave like psychopaths (e.g. on social media). However, if we want to live in good societies—where most games are positive-sum and decency is the norm—there is no substitute for having a sufficient number of people who are actually good, or struggling to be so.
It is, therefore, ominous that our political culture now celebrates figures who are obviously unethical—liars, bullies, and conmen—many of whom see no reason to even pretend to harbor deeper values or virtues. Whatever your politics, President Trump has said and done a thousand things that should make it impossible to admire him as a person—and he will commit further atrocities this week. Elon Musk has achieved a similarly vile orbit—lying with abandon, making common cause with racists and lunatics, and pointlessly defaming ordinary people—it seems, just for the fun of it. Both men are conspicuous for the degree to which they still resemble children, having retained a juvenile sense of entitlement, recklessness, and self-absorption. Both are already cautionary tales about the corrupting influences of fame, wealth, and power—even as they continue to achieve new heights.
Narcissism is one key to understanding both Trump and Musk. One can’t say that they suffer from narcissism, exactly—as they have become its high priests. Neither man ever apologizes for the mistakes he makes or the harms he causes. Each luxuriates in a moral weightlessness conferred by the adulation (and short attention span) of the crowd. Did Trump attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election, while falsely claiming that it had been stolen from him? Did Musk just get exposed as a fraud by some of his most ardent fans? No one cares or remembers, because there are fresh antics and outrages to contemplate today. For all their flaws, the chaos that these men bring into the world, hour by hour, is at least interesting.
Of course, their fans love them, in part, because the chaos is also transgressive. In different ways, Trump and Musk prove that it is okay to be terribly flawed—and to aspire to no ethical standards whatsoever—because you can always be washed clean by the attention of others. In this way, each man has become a kind of savior for people who don’t want to be judged. It is a mutual absolution and intoxication.
For those who are unconcerned about this phenomenon, it seems worth asking, what would it take to startle you? What could Trump or Musk do to make you suddenly feel that something essential to the health of our politics, or our society, has been broken?
And if it really is all about the price of eggs, how expensive would a dozen eggs have to be for you to realize that Trump 2.0 has been a terrible mistake?
Feb 05, 2025
Does the world still need good people, or are we all free to become monsters now?
It may seem priggish to say it, given the current “vibe shift,” but we really can’t give up on personal integrity just yet. The day we celebrate our children for their selfishness and cruelty will be the point of no return.
Clearly, we need systems and institutions that can withstand the intrusions of a charismatic psychopath. We also need ones that can resist when otherwise normal people behave like psychopaths (e.g. on social media). However, if we want to live in good societies—where most games are positive-sum and decency is the norm—there is no substitute for having a sufficient number of people who are actually good, or struggling to be so.
It is, therefore, ominous that our political culture now celebrates figures who are obviously unethical—liars, bullies, and conmen—many of whom see no reason to even pretend to harbor deeper values or virtues. Whatever your politics, President Trump has said and done a thousand things that should make it impossible to admire him as a person—and he will commit further atrocities this week. Elon Musk has achieved a similarly vile orbit—lying with abandon, making common cause with racists and lunatics, and pointlessly defaming ordinary people—it seems, just for the fun of it. Both men are conspicuous for the degree to which they still resemble children, having retained a juvenile sense of entitlement, recklessness, and self-absorption. Both are already cautionary tales about the corrupting influences of fame, wealth, and power—even as they continue to achieve new heights.
Narcissism is one key to understanding both Trump and Musk. One can’t say that they suffer from narcissism, exactly—as they have become its high priests. Neither man ever apologizes for the mistakes he makes or the harms he causes. Each luxuriates in a moral weightlessness conferred by the adulation (and short attention span) of the crowd. Did Trump attempt to steal the 2020 presidential election, while falsely claiming that it had been stolen from him? Did Musk just get exposed as a fraud by some of his most ardent fans? No one cares or remembers, because there are fresh antics and outrages to contemplate today. For all their flaws, the chaos that these men bring into the world, hour by hour, is at least interesting.
Of course, their fans love them, in part, because the chaos is also transgressive. In different ways, Trump and Musk prove that it is okay to be terribly flawed—and to aspire to no ethical standards whatsoever—because you can always be washed clean by the attention of others. In this way, each man has become a kind of savior for people who don’t want to be judged. It is a mutual absolution and intoxication.
For those who are unconcerned about this phenomenon, it seems worth asking, what would it take to startle you? What could Trump or Musk do to make you suddenly feel that something essential to the health of our politics, or our society, has been broken?
And if it really is all about the price of eggs, how expensive would a dozen eggs have to be for you to realize that Trump 2.0 has been a terrible mistake?
