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Authority, and the Cost of Defying Reality
This is not a diagnosis. It is a reflection and analysis of recurring patterns, psychological, organizational, and cultural, that emerge when grandiosity meets authority and risk.
Recent years have offered stark case studies of how confidence can harden into exceptionalism, how dissent is sidelined, and how others, sometimes even experts, are pulled along. One of the most chilling examples is the Titan submersible tragedy associated with Stockton Rush. Another unfolds in the political arena, where warnings about narcissism and power, voiced by thinkers like Sam Vaknin, echo amid what is currently happening in the United States, with figures such as Donald Trump shaping public life.
What connects a deep-sea submersible and a modern political movement is not the domain, but the dynamic.
The Deep-Dive Illusion
In engineering, depth is unforgiving. Pressure increases exponentially, margins vanish, and failure is sudden. The same is true in systems led by grandiose authority. As leaders go deeper, insulated from challenge and convinced of their singular vision, pressure builds invisibly.
The Titan project was framed as bold innovation. Yet established safety standards for deep-ocean exploration exist for a reason. Carbon fiber hulls, unconventional testing regimes, and the dismissal of certification were not only technical choices. They reflected a belief that rules were optional, that being special confers exemption.
This belief sits at the core of grandiose narcissism. It is the idea that conviction itself can override reality. Reality does not yield.
How Experts Get Pulled Under
One of the most unsettling questions is not why risky designs were pursued, but how seasoned specialists agreed to participate.
Grandiose authority rarely relies on overt coercion. Instead, it persuades through charisma and vision, through the gradual normalization of risk, through flattery and proximity to power, and through subtle penalties for dissent. Over time, caution is reframed as fear, and safety as stagnation.
The result is a collective descent. Judgment erodes not because people are unintelligent, but because influence reshapes what feels reasonable. Many go down together, carried by one person’s certainty.
Warnings About Narcissism and Power
Sam Vaknin warned that narcissistic leaders externalize risk while internalizing credit. They reward loyalty over competence. They replace feedback loops with echo chambers. Systems collapse with them, not behind them.
These warnings were never limited to psychology. They apply to organizations, institutions, and nations.
The Political Parallel
In politics, the deep dive is not into the ocean but into polarization, institutional strain, and the erosion of norms. The same psychological dynamics appear.
Constraints are framed as obstacles rather than safeguards. Experts and institutions are discredited. Absolute confidence is celebrated as strength. Followers are pulled along through identity and loyalty rather than evidence.
With Donald Trump, rule-breaking is often interpreted by supporters as authenticity. Critics warn that this reframing makes danger feel like courage and dissent feel like betrayal. Again, this is not a diagnosis. It is an observation of pattern.
When grandiosity occupies authority, entire systems are asked to suspend disbelief.
Sinking Ships and Rock Bottom
Ships and submarines fail differently. Ships list and flood, sometimes offering warning. Submarines implode when limits are crossed, silently and instantly.
Grandiose leadership tends to produce submarine failures rather than shipwrecks. There is often a long period of apparent success, followed by growing insulation from reality, and then sudden, catastrophic consequences.
Those consequences are rarely borne by the leader alone.
Why This Matters
These stories are not about villains or heroes. They are about patterns we continue to repeat. Confidence is mistaken for competence. Skepticism is treated as disloyalty. Belief is expected to override physics, systems, or law.
A true deep dive requires humility. It requires continuous testing, independent verification, and respect for limits. Without those, depth becomes danger.
Final Reflection
When authority insists on going deeper without safeguards, everyone on board descends together. Whether in the ocean or in society, pressure always wins.
The question is not whether bold visions are necessary. They are.
The question is whether we have learned to recognize the moment when delusion takes the helm.
And whether we are willing to surface before we hit rock bottom.
