Yes, I’ve seen it directed both against others and the self. I think on a fundamental level we know that the love we show ourselves is very connected to the love we show others, and we can’t cleanly separate them

I see it as basically inevitable, but not out of malice. The natural response to childhood trauma is to tell yourself a story that you actually were somehow in control of it or responsible for it. And since it's not true, that story ends up failing us as adults as we grasp for control we can't have

Of course it's not. It's a pitiful way to live. But I'm more and more convinced that it is the inevitable result of wealth (and power and privilege and whatever else sets us above and apart from and against our fellow humans), it's just a matter of time.

Most importantly, it is not to be emulated.

I believe they often don’t like it, and may even realize it makes them weaker… but they’re too scared of facing reality and have already traded their humanity for the protections that surround them

And wouldn’t that be a shame.

Bottom line is they can’t make infinite profit by from providing a relatively fixed number of people the software they actually need

yes I'm taking that into account