Quote
Stoic
SNIP
None of us is wholly good or wholly evil (although I can cheerfully label some as completely evil---that is my way of reminding myself to avoid such types) and we all make choices. When those choices are solely driven by self-interest, eg JAR's and Genpo's overriding desires for money and power then the fallout to victims becomes an issue of rigid denial. To be successful, the conman first has to con himself that he is superior and righteous in his use and abuse of others.
I disagree, Stoic. Bernard Madoff, the patron saint of all con men, knew he was a thoroughly mediocre stock-picker. He also knew he was conning people, and appears to have enjoyed knowing he was going to wreck people's lives. That might even have been part of his motivation. (Madoff actually wasn't such a great con man, and he might have known that, too. The SEC extended his run by several years because they ignored credible reports about him. There's a lesson in that, I think.)
Top Enron execs flooded the market with Enron stock at the same time as they urged employees, alarmed by its plunging price, to buy it; I personally think they did this in order to ensure buyers for the stock they were dumping. The video of the company meeting where execs tell employees to fill their 401ks exclusively with Enron stock even as the price sank is quite chilling, and those ill-advised purchases were one of the reasons the Enron collapse wiped out so many people. (Always diversify your 401k, kids, and if your bosses are telling you to buy only company stock, it's time for an anonymous call to the SEC. And then a non-anonymous call to an employment agency.)
So you don't need to con yourself to con everyone else. If you enjoy hurting people while appearing to help them, conning is the job for you.
I do agree it's possible to be a high achiever at some things and still be a con man -- Eckhart Tolle appears to have been a genuinely gifted student, for example-- but that seems rather rare now that I'm thinking about it.
Although, if you take off the moral lenses for a moment, the ability to con is a gift. It's a gift from the devil, but it's a gift all the same.