Peter Thiel recently said that ‘if you’re evil, you’re at least competent.’
Having recently watched Alejandro’s Digger, I was left considering this question of whether ‘evilness’ links to competence, and ultimately, I came to disagree with Thiel. In fact, I believe those who are ‘evil’ are far less likely to be competent in today’s day and age. No longer are crimes committed by elites with thought and careful planning – indeed, one could say that those who are truly evil commit their sins in a manner of ‘daylight robbery,’ unpunished by the authorities. And the rest of us let them do it.
This point becomes explicit when we consider the culture wars of recent years, used to obfuscate from real world issues and accountability that needs to occur. A pertinent example in the UK is that of Nigel Farage and his farcical by-election to halt the investigation into the £5 million pounds gifted to him for matters of ‘security’. It was satisfying to witness the by-election be perverted into man versus bin, however this served counter-productively to distract us from his true intention of keeping the filthy money gifted by Christopher Harborne.
On a smaller scale, posts by financial elites on social media such as Trump’s AI images of him as God serve to perpetuate the never ending ‘left-right’ culture war which keeps the public mindlessly occupied. Though this reflects poorly on our accountability system, it also reflects poorly on us as a people – criticising Sydney Sweeney for her sexualisation of women in sports is not going to move the needle on the plight of the normal people, it will just distract from the myriad of issues we are drowning in.
Drawing back to the point of this article — no, I do not believe one is inherently competent when evil. Wealth blinds the elite to the implications of their actions on the real world, as wars become things to bet on through the latest online betting market variant. Their belief in their own competence should be their hamartia, but while the public still succumbs to this constant derision and distraction over insignificant cultural footnotes, they get away with it.
“Peter Thiel” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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Evil People Aren’t Competent
Peter Thiel recently said that ‘if you’re evil, you’re at least competent.’
Having recently watched Alejandro’s Digger, I was left considering this question of whether ‘evilness’ links to competence, and ultimately, I came to disagree with Thiel. In fact, I believe those who are ‘evil’ are far less likely to be competent in today’s day and age. No longer are crimes committed by elites with thought and careful planning – indeed, one could say that those who are truly evil commit their sins in a manner of ‘daylight robbery,’ unpunished by the authorities. And the rest of us let them do it.
This point becomes explicit when we consider the culture wars of recent years, used to obfuscate from real world issues and accountability that needs to occur. A pertinent example in the UK is that of Nigel Farage and his farcical by-election to halt the investigation into the £5 million pounds gifted to him for matters of ‘security’. It was satisfying to witness the by-election be perverted into man versus bin, however this served counter-productively to distract us from his true intention of keeping the filthy money gifted by Christopher Harborne.
On a smaller scale, posts by financial elites on social media such as Trump’s AI images of him as God serve to perpetuate the never ending ‘left-right’ culture war which keeps the public mindlessly occupied. Though this reflects poorly on our accountability system, it also reflects poorly on us as a people – criticising Sydney Sweeney for her sexualisation of women in sports is not going to move the needle on the plight of the normal people, it will just distract from the myriad of issues we are drowning in.
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Drawing back to the point of this article — no, I do not believe one is inherently competent when evil. Wealth blinds the elite to the implications of their actions on the real world, as wars become things to bet on through the latest online betting market variant. Their belief in their own competence should be their hamartia, but while the public still succumbs to this constant derision and distraction over insignificant cultural footnotes, they get away with it.
“Peter Thiel” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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