I think for a lot of those kinds of people it’s pathological. For example, I remember reading in Careless People (a memoir by a former Facebook/Meta employee) about some of the things the author witnessed about Mark Zuckerberg made it seem like he only wanted to do things because no one else could, not because he personally derived any enjoyment out of it. I’ve seen this personally with philanthropists too. They don’t actually like the disadvantaged kids they’re helping (I’m talking literal racists), but they like the idea that they’re the only ones that these kids can turn to. Basically I’m saying I don’t think they believe life is zero-sum, but they have a pathological need to create zero-sum circumstances where they are the “winners” and the rest of us losers.
I think for a lot of those kinds of people it’s pathological. For example, I remember reading in Careless People (a memoir by a former Facebook/Meta employee) about some of the things the author witnessed about Mark Zuckerberg made it seem like he only wanted to do things because no one else could, not because he personally derived any enjoyment out of it. I’ve seen this personally with philanthropists too. They don’t actually like the disadvantaged kids they’re helping (I’m talking literal racists), but they like the idea that they’re the only ones that these kids can turn to. Basically I’m saying I don’t think they believe life is zero-sum, but they have a pathological need to create zero-sum circumstances where they are the “winners” and the rest of us losers.