The Architect and the Barbarian: The Tragic Divorce of Competence and Virtue

Ever since human beings emerged from the state of nature to build cities, a fundamental tension has shaped social order: how should we choose those who must lead, and on what criteria should their legitimacy rest? If we strip power structures of their inherited ornamentation, only two pillars remain on which an individual’s value within the social body truly stands: competence, which is operational intelligence, and virtue, which is moral integrity oriented toward the common good.

Competence allows us to act effectively upon the world. Virtue determines to what end, and within what limits, that power is exercised.

The history of civilizations is the story of oscillation between these two poles. When both qualities are united, a civilization prospers sustainably. When they diverge, it drifts toward collapse.

Today, a bitter truth confronts us: we are living at the height of an era in which efficiency has devoured ethics. We have built a caste system in which know‑how has eclipsed know‑being, turning our leaders into high‑performing machines drained of moral substance. The Epstein affair offers a staggering illustration of this.

Yet this slide began decades ago. We have grown convinced that competence is sufficient. That success proves worth. That performance justifies power, that visibility implies competence, that wealth implies merit, that legality implies legitimacy.

The equation is seductive because simplification reassures. It is also dangerous.

The Two Pillars of Social Status and Legitimacy: Capacitas and Virtus

Social status is not merely a matter of bank accounts. It is a form of collective recognition, an assessment of a member’s usefulness and trustworthiness.

Competence (Capacitas) answers the question: “Is this person capable of solving the problem?” Whether it is the Roman engineer or the Silicon Valley developer, perceived competence promises material prosperity. A general who wins battles, tyrant or not, brings immediate security. A financier who multiplies profits, cynical or not, enriches the city in the short term.

Virtue (Virtus) answers the question: “Is this person trustworthy?” Virtue is not politeness; it is a constant disposition to subordinate self‑interest to a higher moral rule or to the community’s survival. It manifests in restraint, responsibility, and the ability to renounce personal advantage for the common good. To not steal, not betray, not lie for gain. It is less immediately profitable, yet infinitely more structurally important.

Throughout human societies, these two qualities have always been necessary for durable legitimacy. Warrior aristocracies invoked bravery and honor. Ancient republics combined the ability to govern with civic righteousness. Modern states still ground legitimacy on effectiveness and responsibility.

In a balanced society, competence and virtue form an inseparable alloy. Competence without virtue is a public danger. Virtue without competence is tragic impotence.

Yet history shows a systemic, and often suicidal, bias toward the first, especially in times of tension. Societies favor those who seem able to act, even if they lack scruples. The rise of a figure like Trump to power offers a prime example.

History Warns Us

This primacy of perceived competence is not new. History is littered with the ghosts of civilizations that believed technical genius could compensate for moral collapse.

Athens exalted Alcibiades for his strategic brilliance despite his opportunism and repeated betrayals. Rome admired Julius Caesar for his military and political talent, even as the Republic collapsed under the weight of one man’s indispensability. Civic virtues like gravitas and pietas yielded to personal ambition. Competence served to destroy the institutions these men were meant to protect.

The twentieth century delivered an even darker lesson. Totalitarian regimes did not rest solely on ideology. They thrived on ruthless organizational competence: planning, administering, rationalizing, executing at scale. Hannah Arendt spoke of the banality of evil, not the inefficiency of evil, but its chilling effectiveness.

More recently, Bernard Madoff was considered one of the world’s most competent financiers. His technical skill was unquestioned, until his total lack of virtue ruined thousands.

The fall of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX offers yet another case of this fetishization of competence. His supposed mathematical genius overshadowed basic questions about integrity. Society confused intellectual agility with moral reliability.

The conclusion is stark: competence without virtue becomes a multiplier of destructive power.

Today: Success as the Ultimate Absolute

We now live under a corrupted form of meritocracy. Merit was meant to reward effort and talent in service of all. Today, it has been reduced to a fetish of economic success and visibility.

In such a system, wealth and notoriety serve as proxies for competence. If someone is rich, we assume they are capable. And if their success is legal, or simply not sanctioned, we grant them a respectability that conceals their absence of virtue.

The financial crisis of 2008 demonstrated this clearly. Technically brilliant executives and traders took massive systemic risks. Financial engineering was sophisticated. Ethical reflection was marginal.

Philosopher Michael Sandel speaks of the tyranny of merit. This logic produces an arrogant elite convinced that its success owes nothing to luck or moral responsibility, but only to its raw effectiveness. We have created a society in which winners are exempt from being good. Predatory behavior is tolerated as long as the stock price climbs.

Legal Does Not Mean Just

One of the most troubling symptoms of our era is the reduction of virtue to mere legal compliance.

If it is legal, it must be acceptable.

Aggressive tax optimization, speculation on essential goods, exploitation of regulatory loopholes, massive capture of personal data may all be lawful while still deeply harmful to the social fabric.

Politics follows the same pattern. Initial strategic competence is tolerated at the expense of democratic virtue, until the cost becomes catastrophic.

Technocracy also feeds this drift. Governing through expertise alone turns citizens into variables in an optimization problem. When expertise replaces deliberation, competence overtakes civic virtue.

In a culture obsessed with immediacy, rankings, and performance metrics, virtue is structurally disadvantaged.

Consequences: Fragile Power and Eroded Trust

When the most competent rise to the top without an equivalent moral standard, society becomes more efficient, yet less stable.

Inequalities grow. Collective trust erodes. The sense of injustice spreads.

No level of technical competence can repair lost legitimacy.

Rehabilitating Virtue

The goal is not to oppose virtue and competence. A society that values moral purity over effectiveness becomes impotent. Virtue without competence is sterile; competence without virtue is dangerous.

The challenge is to redefine merit.

Education systems must reintegrate ethics in a radical way. Competence without moral direction is a social disability. The memory of past catastrophes is not academic luxury, it is civilizational insurance.

In business, promotions must stop rewarding numbers alone. Ethical behavior and contribution to group cohesion must become decisive criteria. Toxic geniuses must be excluded.

Social recognition must explicitly include contribution to the common good, sustainability, and long‑term responsibility, not just wealth or notoriety. Prestige should return to those who sustain society, such as teachers, caregivers, honest judges, public researchers, responsible entrepreneurs, rather than to those who exploit it.

Accountability mechanisms must be reinforced. Greater transparency, stricter conflict‑of‑interest rules, real responsibility for systemic harm. The more powerful a person is, the more demanding the law and morality must be. The impunity of the “competent” is poison for democratic trust.

The Final Lesson

Our societies are more technologically powerful than any that preceded them. Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, digital surveillance, financial engineering, human competence has reached unprecedented heights.

If this power is not anchored in virtue, the risks become systemic.

History is clear: civilizations do not collapse for lack of talent, but for lack of wisdom.

We may continue to admire success and celebrate innovation. But if we fail to reintroduce virtue as a condition for prestige and power, we will keep elevating brilliant individuals whose intelligence, without moral compass, will weaken our common structure.

Competence is the engine of progress, but virtue is its rudder. A society that worships only the engine will inevitably crash against the reefs of chaos.

If we want to survive the challenges of this century, we must stop measuring social prestige by what one takes from the world, and instead measure what one gives to it with integrity.