The awkward silence when WWII arises in conversation shows how the German people bear perpetual shame for electing a monster. One wonders how they could do it? Were they swayed by alternative facts? Did they hear the fiction "everyone can be a billionaire like me"? Did they believe that he would make them great, rather than asking themselves "what you can do for your country?".
Poverty in the midst of relative plenty disenchants many people, and each one gets to cast the same number (ONE) of votes as a billionaire. Some wealthy seem prescient: Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, et al; but for each of them there is a Shkreli or Swartzman.
CEOs wonder how we got here, and how to muzzle the bear. They don't realize their role: earning more in a day than their average employee does in a year leads to this poverty amidst plenty. And now, instead of being the courageous leaders (c.f. Ivan Sutherland's essay "Technology and Courage") they wonder how to keep their heads down. Someone's got to stick their head up, or else no-one will oppose Hitler. If they collectively stick their heads up, they have a much better chance of winning, even if winning means only losing their private islands rather than their homes. If the leaders aren't courageous, then the nobodies won't be either.
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