The Noble Lie

I stumbled on this movie during my study of psychopathy, and it is this angle of the movie that interests me the most. There are people who are naturally psychopathic, that is to say, they lack the “moral compass” to make choices pertaining to right and wrong. It is also a hereditary quality that can be bred for, which is why arranged marriages are the rule among the noble orders. It is truly wrong to say the psychopath is just evil and selfish. They lack an essential component of that which most of us would point to as the core of our humanity. They have intelligence, but they lack any sense of compassion.

While some are born naturally psychopathic, otherwise “normal” people can be trained by their society to behave in a psychopathic way. That is what interests me the most about this movie. The key benefit of this for controllers is predictability - you can count on the direction that unfettered self-interest will take - and you can direct it, too.

Part 1 of 2

Part 2 of 2