Why the Most Virtuous Voices Might Be the Most Power-Hungry

This isn’t about left or right—it’s about human nature we won’t admit to.

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I’ve heard it said—especially in addiction recovery circles—that you are only as sick as your secrets. It's a line that stays with you, because it doesn’t just apply to individuals.

It scales up.

When we deny what lurks in the dark corners of our nature, we don't become better people—we become more dangerous ones, doubly so for groups.

This came to mind again when I saw a report about Karen Bass. Los Angeles, already drowning in debt, is now offering free taxpayer money to people evading ICE agents as cash gifts. According to the report, the city will have to take out new loans to fund this generosity, passing the costs on to its residents. In practical terms, that means the poorest Angelenos will foot the bill for policies I’m not sure they asked for.

It’s not the first time I've seen this pattern: leaders cloaking recklessness in the language of compassion. Gavin Newsom does it. So does Zohran Mamdani, the new NYC mayoral hopeful. They spin their policies as moral imperatives—as justice, as equity, as progress.

But the math tells the tale. The money doesn’t exist.

The people who suffer aren’t the rich. And the “compassion” being sold looks like a form of self-serving theater.

What fascinates me isn’t just the lie itself. It’s what the presence of the lie reveals.

Politicians lie. That’s not new. What’s worth examining is why certain lies are so durable—why so many people want to believe them. In a democracy, leaders are rewarded for telling the public what it wants to hear. But when the public also wants to avoid unpleasant truths, the system becomes one giant feedback loop of denial. Leaders perform compassion while enacting cruelty. Voters feign moral superiority while outsourcing the cost to others. Everyone plays along, and everyone denies responsibility.

This is the landscape where the shadow thrives, and nobody should be surprised that it kinda sucks to live here.

Carl Jung defined the shadow as the part of ourselves we refuse to acknowledge—the primitive, selfish, aggressive, and sometimes sadistic impulses that don’t fit our self-image. We like to imagine ourselves as generous, inclusive, and principled. We don’t like to think of ourselves as power-hungry or predatory. So when those darker instincts show up, we hide them. But hidden doesn’t mean gone. It means the impulses go underground, where they operate outside our awareness and without self-accountability.

Plausible deniability. It is the signature move of the shadow. When we suppress our ambition, our resentment, our hunger for control, we don't eliminate those drives.

We simply find ways to act on them while pretending we aren't. That’s how entire political movements can claim to fight oppression while engaging in censorship, blacklisting, and institutional coercion. That’s how a city can bankrupt itself in the name of kindness. That’s how ordinary people can support cruelty with a clean conscience.

We often think of evil as a conscious choice, but more often, it’s an unconscious compromise. People justify their actions not because they are mustache-twirling villains, but because most genuinely believe they’re doing good.

People can believe this because they have disavowed their shadow. They’ve built a self-concept that can’t accommodate the idea that they might be ambitious, manipulative, or cruel. So when those instincts drive their behavior, they need a cover story.

That’s where ideology comes in, offering a moral framework for amoral actions.

And the more righteous the ideology, the more useful it becomes. In our current iteration, “equity,” “justice,” and “inclusion” are the magic words. Say them, and some folks will trample their grandmothers to be the first to agree.

These ideals, if we are talking the true meanings of these words, aren’t the problem in themselves—what’s dangerous is the camouflage they provide for power-seeking behavior we refuse to acknowledge.

Folks say we’re protecting the vulnerable, but they might be consolidating control. People may front, they’re fighting for the marginalized, but they might be punishing their rivals. And when the outcomes hurt the very people they claim to serve, the believers look away, because to confront the damage would mean confronting the truth.

This is the cost of disowning the shadow: it doesn’t disappear. It just finds subtler, more insidious ways to act.

And few are immune. Today it’s the progressive left, and the past shows us that religion and others have been content to wear the same cloak.

The solution isn’t to reject our darker instincts, but to own them. To admit, yes, I have ambition. Yes, I want power. Yes, I have the capacity to dominate or humiliate or deceive. That doesn't make me evil. It makes me human. The danger comes when I pretend those drives don’t exist—because then I can’t control them.

I can't set internal boundaries. I can't make moral choices. I can only follow urges I refuse to name, hoping that the story I tell myself is enough to let me sleep at night.

If we want a more ethical society, we don’t need more virtue signaling. We need more self-awareness and real humility. We need leaders who are honest, not just about budgets and policy impacts, but about the temptations of their own hearts. We need citizens who understand that goodness isn’t something you perform—it’s something you wrestle with.

And perhaps the hardest part of all is admitting that this isn’t just a problem with the other guy.

The challenge lies within us too.

Housekeeping

Mercy. I’ve had a flat week. It was difficult to get today’s writing finished because so many other things seemed to be calling, I didn’t want to do anything. My self just wasn’t being a cooperator.

While I have still managed to get stuff done, I also have a profound sense of the planet turning the corner on the year, and the fall coming. It goes all the way to my bones, winter is coming, even though it’s still hotter than authentic Thai curry around here.

It’s a light thing. I learned that in Alaska. Other folks just gotta feel it too, though I’ve never heard anyone talk about it before. So let me know, is it just me? Or do some of you out there notice those sunbeams looking different, and yourself starting to feel like you’ve got to get things finished up, to the extent you don’t want to do nothing?

On the Bookshelf

I’ve listened to text-to-speech on some of these, but the flat week is flat. I’m gonna go to bed early today and hope things sort themselves out by morning. This is a solid plan that generally works.

Accreditation on the Edge: Challenging Quality Assurance in Higher Education by Susan D. Phillips

The Case Against Education by Bryan Caplan

The Licensing Racket: How We Decide Who Is Allowed to Work, and Why It Goes Wrong by Rebecca Haw Allensworth

Moral Calculations: Game Theory, Logic and Human Frailty by Laszlo Mero

The New Know-nothings: The Political Foes of the Scientific Study of Human Nature by Morton Hunt

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard by Marc Brettler, Carol Newsom, Pheme Perkins

Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard Feynman

We Have Never Been Woke: The Cultural Contradictions of the New Elite by Musa al-Gharbi

“Whatever It Is, I’m Against It”: Resistance to Change in Higher Education by Brian Rosenberg

Your Consent Is Not Required by Rob Wipond. ←— READ THIS BOOK!

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About

Diogenes in Exile began after I returned to grad school to pursue a Clinical Mental Health Counseling master’s degree at the University of Tennessee. What I encountered, however, was a program deeply entrenched in Critical Theories ideology. During my time there, I experienced significant resistance, particularly for my Buddhist practice, which was labeled as invalidating to other identities. After careful reflection, I chose to leave the program, believing the curriculum being taught would ultimately harm clients and lead to unethical practices in the field.

Since then, I’ve dedicated myself to investigating, writing, and speaking out about the troubling direction of psychology, higher education, and other institutions that seem to have lost their way. When I’m not working on these issues, you’ll find me in the garden, creating art, walking my dog, or guiding my kids toward adulthood.

You can also find my work at Minding the Campus