I regard Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu as psychopaths. Being a psychopath is not being psychotic. It is a personality disorder. By comparison, when a person is bipolar, it can have a psychotic component or not. It can be on the level of a personality disorder, or it can go beyond that. Psychopathy, the name of the disorder I am talking about, does not have a psychotic component—one that you can pin down anyway. These people lack empathy. They don’t mind hurting people, and they kind of enjoy watching people being hurt—I am talking about empathy, no empathy, that is.

When we watch action movies, hero-driven action movies, there is something noble the characters believe in. They aren’t acting on their own, they are not entirely inner driven: There is something they believe in. When I watch a tightly written, well directed, well paced action movie these days, there is something missing: Nobility at the top. I can follow the well laid out story, I can follow the beautifully directed action scenes, but I don’t believe in what impels the story—something noble at the top: It’s not there. At the top of our government, we have a bitch-fest that does not come close to earning the best actions of our best people. Our best people no longer care; they get the same empty feeling I get when I am taking in my favorite secret pleasure, beautifully crafted action movies. Nobility, honesty, depth of character, integrity above all else, respect for other human beings who are living out whatever human condition they were born into: They are entirely missing.

Our president might have a particular bug up his ass on a particular day, and, guess what? He is the only person in the history of the world who has the power to destroy the world. The nuclear trigger is his. We, the people, through our representatives, gave war power to the president with the advent of the nuclear age. Congress does not oversee this part of war; the president alone has that power. Nuclear threats have to be handled within minutes, not hours. It makes sense, this policy—but where the hell is the nobility at the top? Let’s get better people in there. Let’s believe in our action movies again. Let’s have something noble at the top that we can nobly serve and believe in and get rewarded by once the promise of greatness is fulfilled.

I must add: When psychopaths try to act together to achieve something, their selfish impulses are too strong, and they are not insightful enough to understand it. When any two of the leaders I am talking about here act together, they will be complete fuckups—guaranteed!