Comment 8 by Cartomancer :

Great comment.

Hearing Brian Cox on about politics and how his skills are unlikely to go respected and come out well represented there, got me thinking about what social evolution does to ourselves. Why is it that those with most power don't think , as Brian Cox says, in terms of evidence and logic per se? What is it about humans that deliver greatest power to people and groups of people who are either deceptive themselves or else governed by deceptive agency and so have not the influence to overthrow this?

Hard problems for sure, to add to that of theism, though it seems to me there are memes closely related in such circles. Power seems to flow via deception, or is largely preoccupied in reaction to it as to render it synonymous with it, bar what seems the rare few who can manage this.

The old "power corrupts" assertion seems almost insurmountable. Why is that exactly? Does the most devious playground bully most often secure the best reality?