I like your point about associating with those of similar values, and not necessarily people with identical opinions. Cognitive diversity improves the speed and quality of work output, and prevents groupthink. Lots of science supporting this.
I have so many thoughts on this topic. That person who romanticizes the end of the world, and dreams about being the leader of their neighborhood, is a person with no control over their life now, and so concocts a fantasy about the end of the world in which surely everyone will turn to them for guidance. In reality, unless a guy finds himself in a leadership position now, practicing and studying competent leadership, it's unlikely he will be the leader of anything in an emergency. Your notes on narcissism sound so specific that I bet you have had to deal with someone like that in the past! Only recently in my life did I learn that something like 9% of the population has some type of personality disorder, and that around 2% of the population are psychopaths. The percentage of psychopaths may be even higher in high intensity professions like law, and law enforcement. Surely, every person in high level politics is a psychopath. Small teams would benefit to develop strategies for identifying and excluding people with these toxic personality traits.
There seems to be no shortage of people on the internet who romanticize crisis, or as you said, end of world scenarios. My opinion is, some of these individuals may have things going wrong in their lives currently, and this fantasy is an escape from reality, and perhaps this is a way to be the hero of their own story. I think the internet also sometimes brings out the worst in people, and has a way of bringing certain personality disorders to the surface. Time in this life is finite, don't waste it on unhappy toxic people, they are just crabs in a bucket. If they see you escaping, they'll pull you back in.
