How Did the Idiots Get the Power?

Why do so many societies elevate self-interested, grandiose, or even psychopathic leaders? In this episode of I’m Just Sayin’, we explore how human communities may have shifted from small-scale, cooperative societies to complex civilizations dominated by concentrated power.

The episode begins with a working definition of psychopathy and considers what may have happened as humans moved from prehistory into modernity. Rather than assuming that our ancestors lived in a perfect or utopian world, we examine how changes in population size, social organization, and leadership may have created conditions that reward aggressive, self-serving behavior.

A central question runs throughout the discussion: Do our systems select for leaders who are poorly suited to the responsibilities of power?

The conversation also explores how ordinary people become enablers of harmful systems, why responsibility cannot be assigned only to those at the top, and why meaningful change may require healing ourselves before attempting to change the world. Ultimately, this episode is an invitation to revisit fundamental questions about who we are, how we got here, what may have been lost, and whether we can reduce the suffering caused by destructive leadership.

In this episode

• A working definition of psychopathy
• What happened as humans moved from prehistory to modernity
• Why societies may repeatedly select self-interested leaders
• How the values built into social systems influence leadership
• The idea behind a book about “assholes” causing our problems
• Changes in human population ecology and social scale
• The purpose of this broader body of work
• Taking power back from destructive or psychopathic leadership
• The relationship between leadership, human problems, and suffering
• Why our ancestors’ societies were not necessarily utopian
• Why people may still suffer far more than necessary today
• How ordinary people become enablers of harmful systems
• The tension between being trapped by a system and remaining responsible for it
• Why healing ourselves may need to come first
• The grandiosity of civilizations and their leaders
• How leadership may have shifted from tribal consultation to self-interest
• Why extinction creates an urgent reason to understand these patterns
• Alternative views that treat self-interested leadership as inevitable or beneficial
• What may have been lost in the transition to modernity
• Returning to the original questions: Who are we, and why are we here?
• An invitation to sit with the information and draw personal conclusions

Key takeaway

Our political and social problems may be connected to systems that reward the wrong traits in leaders. Understanding how power became concentrated—and how ordinary people participate in maintaining those systems—may be necessary if we want to reduce suffering and create a different future.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Jackrabbit explores his concept of the “Collapse Engine,” a term he uses to describe the metacrisis as a whole. At the center of his argument is a mismatch between the human brain we evolved with and the abstract, hyper-complex environments we have built.

Jackrabbit suggests that modern cultural and technological advances have disconnected us from the natural feedback loops that once helped regulate human behavior. Our older, visceral brain systems evolved in intimate, localized environments where causes and consequences were immediate and understandable. Today, those systems must operate within a globalized and highly abstract world—one shaped by climate change, extraction, bureaucracy, technology, and systems too complex for any individual to fully comprehend.

The conversation examines the relationship between the visceral core of the brain and the neocortex, the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and the possibility that humans have become an invasive species within the larger systems that created us.

Jackrabbit also discusses climate change, human evolution, egalitarianism, religion, the myth of the “noble savage,” alternative value systems, and the challenge of facing the future without immediately trying to control or fix it. Rather than offering a simple solution, he argues for understanding the forces at work, sitting with reality, and learning to distinguish the narratives of the neocortex from the deeper motivations of the visceral brain.

In this episode

• Jackrabbit’s background and intellectual influences
• The Vital Question by Nick Lane
• The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich
• The “Collapse Engine” and the broader metacrisis
• How modern environments conflict with the brains humans evolved with
• Why humans may behave like an invasive species
• The loss of natural feedback loops
• The relationship between the visceral brain and the neocortex
• Why humans live in an increasingly abstract world
• How modern complexity overwhelms older brain systems
• Climate change and the difficulty of responding to distant threats
• Why some extractive actors make destructive choices even when they understand the consequences
• Localization, attribution, and unavoidability in natural human environments
• The idea that humans are artifacts of larger systems rather than entirely self-created individuals
• Accretion and the evolutionary forces that shape us
• What life was like in small, intimate human communities
• Evolutionary theory and the persistence of ancient human traits
• Why egalitarianism may not be the central problem
• The mythologizing of the “noble savage”
• Whether the human–environment mismatch is actually unnatural
• The possibility that humans are naturally transforming—and damaging—the planet
• Why Jackrabbit does not offer simple solutions for the future
• Understanding and accepting the processes already unfolding
• Separating the neocortex’s narrative from the visceral cortex
• Alternative value systems
• Stewardship, nature, and Jackrabbit’s future work
• “Marie Curie is my housecat”

Books and resources mentioned

• The Vital Question — Nick Lane
• The Secret of Our Success — Joseph Henrich
• Jackrabbit’s essay, “Was Agent Smith Right?”
  https://substack.com/home/post/p-203992492
• Jackrabbit’s Substack
  https://substack.com/@jackrabbitrocks

Key takeaway

The problems facing modern civilization may not be caused only by bad individuals or flawed institutions. They may also emerge from a deeper mismatch between ancient human biology and the complex environments we have created. Understanding that mismatch—and the systems that produced it—may be the first step toward responding more honestly to the future.

What happened when human societies shifted from mobile hunter-gatherer communities to agriculture, cities, and increasingly complex systems of government?

This episode examines competing explanations for the rise of modernity, beginning with the limitations of the archaeological record and the assumptions built into familiar stories about prehistory. It questions whether the transition to agriculture was simply an inevitable improvement—or whether growing dependence on cities introduced new social and psychological problems.

The discussion explores population size, prosocial behavior, shame and shunning, sexual behavior regulation, female sexual selection, Dunbar’s number, anonymity, and the ways families, tribes, and governments manage group behavior. It also considers whether modern societies might regulate large groups without relying so heavily on shame, exclusion, or coercion.

Rather than accepting inherited explanations, the episode returns to a more fundamental question: What happened?

In this episode

• Definitions and assumptions about prehistory and social development
• What archaeological research can—and cannot—tell us
• The scarcity of evidence and the problem of European “caveman” bias
• Conventional explanations for the 10,000-year transition from hunter-gatherer life to agriculture
• Population growth as a possible driver of modernity
• Whether the move toward cities was intentional, pathological, or both
• How ancestors may have used prosocial behavior to manage communities
• Shame and shunning as social-regulatory mechanisms
• The regulation of male sexual and aggressive behavior
• Female sexual selection as a possible mechanism of social regulation
• Dunbar’s number, anonymity, and the challenges of managing larger groups
• How family, tribal, and governmental structures regulate behavior
• Representative democracy as a form of group management
• Why population size does not necessarily cause psychopathy
• A biology professor’s example of managing groups
• Whether large groups can be managed without shame and shunning
• Why we may need to examine the concept of “government” more closely
• The importance of asking what happened before asking why

Key takeaway

The rise of agriculture, cities, and government is often presented as a straightforward story of progress. This episode challenges that assumption, asking whether population growth and social complexity changed human behavior in ways that are not always beneficial—and whether there are better ways to organize large groups.

In this short biweekly monologue, I examine how humans decide what is true—and whether modern science is the only reliable way of knowing.

Science is an extraordinary tool, but it can be misunderstood, misused, or treated as more definitive than the evidence allows. This episode explores the limits of reductionist science, the assumptions built into statistics and scientific methods, and the danger of mistaking incomplete evidence for complete knowledge.

From Einstein’s work to the knowledge systems of our ancestors, we consider alternative explanations, pre-scientific human survival, plant medicine, shamanic traditions, and the role that curiosity and speculation may have played in human evolution. The goal isn’t to reject science, but to recognize that we may need more than one tool to understand a complex world.

In this episode

• What I’m Just Sayin’ is and why it features short biweekly monologues
• How modern people determine what they know
• The limitations of reductionist science
• The difference between proof, truth, systems, evidence, and facts
• Why we often act as though we know more than we do
• The failure to recognize alternative explanations
• How statistics and assumptions shape scientific conclusions
• Why findings from the benchtop don’t always scale well to the real world
• What Einstein actually contributed to our understanding of reality
• Whether science is the only way of knowing
• How human beings survived and learned before modern science
• Why existence is only partial evidence of persistence
• How traditional knowledge may have contributed to human evolution
• Why limited evidence shouldn’t stop us from asking important questions
• How science has shaped—and sometimes skewed—our view of prehistory
• Shamans and plant medicine as examples of alternative knowledge systems
• Why we should give ourselves permission to speculate
• The importance of using every tool in the toolbox

Key takeaway

Science is one of humanity’s most valuable tools—but it may not be the only one. Understanding the world requires intellectual humility, openness to alternative explanations, and a willingness to ask meaningful questions even when the evidence is incomplete.

Dr. Andrew Schmookler's ideas arose during the counterculture movement, sparked by a spontaneous vision in Golden Gate Park. That spark evolved into The Parable of the Tribes—a body of work that has crystallized over the last 50 years.

The Core Idea: The Parable suggests that Modernity was inevitable for any organism in any universe, and that humans created a system that breaks all the rules of evolution. In this interview, Dr. Schmookler walks us through this vision and explains why this message is so urgent today.

Much like the pivotal movements of the late 60s—from the Clean Air and Water Acts to the first warnings of climate change and the fight for civil rights—Dr. Schmookler’s work remains partially understood and ahead of its time.

In this conversation, we explore:

• The origins and evolution of The Parable of the Tribes.
• The intersection of evolution, social structure, and human nature.
• A unique 80-year perspective on how much the world can change.
• A reason for true optimism regarding our future.

I am honored to share this interview and this important work. I hope you enjoy the conversation with Dr. Andrew Schmookler.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Read the first chapter of The Parable of the Tribes
• Explore Dr. Schmookler’s extensive body of work

The 10,000 Year Problem

Ten thousand years ago, humans lived differently. Before the era of kings, borders, and ownership, we were cooperative and deeply connected. We had enough.

Then, something changed.

This podcast is an inquiry into that change. Was it inevitable? What was lost? And most importantly: can we get any of it back?

I'm Chris Burcher. Through conversations with scientists, thinkers, and those doing the hard work of imagining a new way forward, I'm exploring who we were, who we are, and who we want to be. This isn't about romanticizing the past—it's about understanding it so we can survive the present.

Subscribe now to join the journey.

👉 Subscribe/Follow to be notified when Episode 1 launches. 👉 Get involved: https://substack.com/@chrisburcher to suggest a guest or join the discussion.