My friends say the problem with today's robber barons is that they're greedy egomaniacs, but I don't think that nails it. What after all is egomania? It's some extreme on a continuum I ride too.
No, it's not all about me, but for me, it's mostly about me. I thrive on endorphment, the endorphin rush of getting endorsed. Who doesn't? Likewise, with greed. I purr when I win. I prefer personal gain to personal loss.
There's no clearly marked line between standard issue ego and egomania or between normal and abnormal pursuit of personal property. Some crimes are easy to identify. If you kill someone, you've crossed the line into murder. But greedy egomania? Pretty fuzzy line to cross. I'm not hypocrite enough to fault today's robber barons for being like me.
No, what I object to is the mindlessness of their greedy egomaniacal campaigns. Like all of us, today's robber barons have lucked into the game of life, a game whose object they get to make up for themselves. With their talent and resources they have extraordinary range in choosing the object of the game, and the best they can come up with is to accumulate as much money as possible and to spend it on the fussy props of grandeur, more stuff than they can find time to enjoy.
