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Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

A blog by Leon Oudejans

Genius, evil and insanity

15 January 2025

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“The notion that genius is only thinly separated from insanity goes back at least to ancient Greece. Aristotle linked the two when he said, “There is no great genius without a touch of madness.” Source: PsychologyToday (2020).

A recent comment by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, on an alleged genius and tech billionaire, calls him a “truly evil person” (eg, Guardian, the Hill, NYT). In my view, evil and madness are linked because bad “madness” is rooted in evil.

Actually, an “Evil Genius” is the topic of “a 2018 true crime documentary series”, a concept in Cartesian philosophy, an American e-sports organization, a video game, and several other topics (eg, albums, books).

“An Evil Genius is a villainous archetype that adds generous helpings of Intelligence to a base of misdeeds and objectionable morals.”

Source: tvtropes

From a risk management perspective, an evil genius is about likelihood (eg, frequency) and about impact (eg, nine types of impact risk). While the likelihood of a genius is (very) low, her/his impact is (very) high.

Evil geniuses are found in certain jobs. A 2012 book by psychopathy specialist Kevin Dutton, claims that the CEO is the #1 psychopath in the workplace (eg, IndependentPsychology TodayTimeWiki, WT); lawyers are #2.

Please also see my related blogs:

“Studies have suggested that serial killers who got caught generally have an average or low-average IQ, although they are often described, and perceived, as possessing IQs in the above-average range. A sample of 202 IQs of serial killers who got caught had a median IQ of 89.”

Source: Wikipedia

In this instance, I must agree with Steve Bannon, former Chief Strategist (2017) for Trump.

Evil Genius (1981) by Pat Benatar
artist, lyrics, video, Wiki-artist, Wiki-album+song

[Chorus]
Why’d ya have to do it, evil genius?
Was it justified in your mind?
Why’d ya put us through it, evil genius?
Was it justified in your mind anytime you held a grudge?

Note: all markings (bolditalicunderlining) by LO unless in quotes or stated otherwise.

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