Psychopathy

Jiang argues that figures like Epstein are loyal first to themselves rather than to any nation, using intelligence and elite connections mainly to accumulate personal power.

Jiang argues that corporations are structurally psychopathic because they pursue profit without regard for human beings or the environment, so people who rise within them tend to mirror that logic.

Jiang argues that in older small-scale communities psychopaths were easier to identify and punish because social life was close-knit and ostracism or banishment carried existential consequences.

Jiang says mass society and bureaucracy favor psychopaths because large impersonal systems reward secrecy, lying, deception, and manipulation more than close communities do.

Jiang extends the psychopathy diagnosis to prominent modern leaders, arguing that charisma and respectability do not cancel out psychopathic behavior in elite politics.

Jiang says there is a direct correlation between the size of a society and how far psychopaths can rise within it, with smaller societies screening them out more effectively than large states such as America or China.

Jiang predicts that after this contraction societies will be forced toward greater compassion, responsibility, resilience, and local accountability, which in turn will screen out psychopaths more effectively.