What stood out to me is that often, many who are considered not as educated as those in what is often described as the "elite class," often tend to be more moral than those who are considered to have a higher intellectual prowess. So, is it possible that morality is equally birthed through education?

One must wonder when the political and contemplative lives ever intertwine and what the outcome is for those who are in political office.

This reminds me of irony surrounding the case study and all of the political chaos surrounding book bans. A well educated person was always considered as one who studied the masters and was exposed to the best in the world. Somewhere within the past 15-20 years, we've allowed ignorance and mediocrity to become a standard. I believe Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates would be embarrassed by the positions some have taken in the name of education today.

The writer nails the point here of what we've seen happen in the corporate and public sectors over the past 10-20 years. For the most part, most leaders are ethical. However, those who are driven by power, greed, and money tend to create companies or are elected into positions where destruction soon follows as a result of the selfish and horrible decisions they made solely based on greed.

The writer makes an excellent point here. People who worship power or money don't realize they are doing it until it is usually too late. A good example is the campaign that 45 ran prior to being elected. He is very good at tapping into the those who felt left out, unheard and silenced. Many cult leaders did the same. The first that comes to mind is Jim Jones. He was methodical in the way he preyed on people and their pain. He knew how to touch that place of pain and use it to his benefit. When he realized that he would likely go to jail for corruption - somehow he convinced hundreds to kill themselves. That level of manipulation is extremely dangerous. People who crave power, money, and authority tend to be sociopaths who tend to become very dangerous. Hence the need for more ethical requirements/regulations across the board.

We've seen what power has done to those who worship it here in Baltimore. Over the last ten years, we've had several elected officials indicted for various crimes. It is almost expected that every year an elected official will be indicted in the city. Why? How did we get to this point? The obvious answer is power. Many people seek it and love everything attached to it - except for the accountability. We are seeing this with 45 (former President Trump and many officials/staffers in his administration). 45 had a deep desire for power prior to being elected president and that was magnified after being elected. He never experienced that level of power and desperately wants that level of global power and respect again. He has zero concern for policy and effecting change. His passion is power, and this is his only reason for trying to run for president againt.

Oddly enough, many highly educated CEOs took classes in ethics and still ended up in some of the largest scandals in American history. Skilling attended Wharton business school and told one professor that he was,"f$%cking smart." So, it's clear that education preparation, no matter how good the school, had little impact on his rationale or reasoning when it came to creating and managing his company. This brings us to the question, is it a psychological disorder that is amplified once a person is placed in power.

This belief is typically found in sociopaths. We've seen people like Jeff Skilling, Enron CEO, and many other CEOs who were later convicted of crimes who operated their companies with this belief. In Alex Gibney's The Smartest Guys in the Room, former Enron employees spoke about how cutthroat and toxic the culture was in Enron prior to the collapse. Skilling thrived in the chaotic environment and trained employees to do the same. He believed that the world evolved around him and nothing else mattered.

I enjoyed the irony of the arrogance between the atheists and religious dogmatists. It's a clear example of the heighted political arguments that have many in a chokehold today. The biases and beliefs that shape us from birth tend to become the things that either help create or destroy.