"The world boils down to a savage desire for status". A comment attributed to Tom Wolfe.
The world boils down to…"a never-ending contest to make others submit to your partisan view of the good, all deriving, ultimately, from the thumos, the force that connects our base needs to our intellect, and unites men in factions to seek power."
Quoted by Philip Kennicott in the Washington Post.
These self-important personages, massive in ego, boiling with ambition, should be allowed to get on with it, but should be mercilessly pilloried when they lead us into calamities (such as we are now experiencing). Meanwhile a putative Epicurean sets aside status and competition for power and influence, and tries to lives quietly and calmly, oiling the cogs of relationships with kindness, consideration, politeness and sensible compromises. Epicureans should be pragmatists and use what common sense they have.