I had a similar experience about 15 years ago. I was speaking with the son of a neighbor -- this kid was 19 years old or thereabouts. He was advancing Socialism in terms of "the board concept" consisting of very intelligent experts in science, agriculture, engineering and medicine. I asked him about the future -- where would he be 10 years after the implementation of this Socialism with these Politburos and Boards of Experts. He smiled (one of those smallish and "all knowing" smiles) and intoned his station on a Board that would place individuals in positions of employment based on the calculated optimized return to The State. This kid was very large -- think linebacker with about 80 extra pounds. As he eloquently described his future ... my mind visualized a different picture ... I saw him in a field with a yoke about his neck... he was pulling a plow. Machines that run on carbon-based fuels had been outlawed in this Utopian Vision ... and so here is this really big kid, pulling a plow like a beast of burden. I did not share my vision of his future. Way too much reality.

These people are horrifyingly delusional. They are often "intelligent" and may actually score very well on IQ tests. Many of them work in software-engineering ... my field ... a field where one often works in the abstract ... math... code. They are often eloquent in their speech... or they will use a lot of pauses so as to emphasize their eloquence and elevation. They are the Self-Anointed. When they speak of the abandonment of money and dissolution of private property, they are also sliding in the unspoken "Of course someone will have to manage this economy ... someone that is very intelligent ... someone with a great compassion for their fellow man ... someone that is far above the realm of money and property."

A person with such towering conceit -- such unbridled arrogance -- such a person must also lack all semblance of self-awareness. These people are very dangerous. Most of them, I suspect, end up as human waste product -- the wreckage from drug abuse as their delusions never materialize. Each one of us, here in The Gulch, may have a few such persons in our sphere of relationships. Their level of toxicity can certainly vary. A small few are good -- at inveigling their way into the substrate of The State and advance their positions from their lofty Boards. In terms of action items -- I continue to think about how they can be both identified (early) and be stopped. Perhaps the system is too ingrained with these sociopaths. Perhaps, as you've indicated, the only viable alternative is to shrug.

Ack! I didn't mean to "call you" on it. That's why I said "interesting". Comments like yours always get me to stop and think. I like your follow-up, though. Seems pretty accurate. Cheers!