Narcissism + Power = Autocracy

When you give a narcissist power . . . you get autocracy.

Narcissism + Power = Autocracy. Autocracy is the institutionalized manifestation of narcissism. The more narcissistic and the more power, the worse the autocracy.

Narcissists care about only one thing: the Self. Self-actualization is the name of the game. The unfettered desires of the heart are the animating spirit. Hedonism is the ethos. Becoming the übermensch is the gospel hope.

Narcissists are predators. The Self must be protected and advanced at all costs. Anything and anyone who stands in their way must be eliminated. In fact, the higher the costs, the more thrilling the hunt. The more people can be thrown under the bus, the better.

Narcissists are masters of manipulation. Self-justification is the only rationale they know. Everything that’s wrong is always someone else’s fault. They have perfected the art of deception. They prey on people’s weakness for co-dependency.

Narcissists don’t care about rooting out corruption or efficiency or fiscal conservatism or balancing the budget or decreasing the national debt — all of those supposed goals are smokescreens. The regulatory state and the institutions of government stand in the way autocracy, and so they are the enemy. Jesus’s warnings against creating vacuums that welcome greater evils and destroying wheat along with weeds are disregarded because the autocratic agenda is all about creating vacuums and destroying wheat so that the autocrat can refill in the gaps and become the All-in-all. Solzhenitsyn taught us that.

Narcissists don’t care about peace or ending war or stopping Stalinist empire-building or helping nascent democracies. How can I look good? How can I make those who don’t fawn over me look bad? How can I fool people so as to prove how clever I am? How can I get away with crimes in broad daylight so as to prove how invincible I am? Those are the sort of urges that drive narcissists.

Narcissists don’t care about protecting the sanctity of life or supporting the working class or improving immigration or honoring first-responders or making America great — all of which are mere pawns on their chessboard. In short, narcissists don’t care about other people. They can’t. They care about themselves.

The king must be crowned. The king must be protected. The king must destroy other kings. The king must win. That’s all that matters.