Our current problems are rooted in the forced competition required by the structure of market society with its carefully crafted artificial scarcities of opportunity for cooperative and mutually satisfying activity. This forced competition for scarce educational, work, housing and other opportunities is the basis for dividing the majority of people against one another by sex, race, age and ability. A ruling minority depends on a divided majority for its security and continued privilege. In an Adlerian sense the desire for coercive power over others is often part of a desperate strategy for enhancing one's self-esteem. Acts of domination over others require numbing oneself to the needs of others and the repercusions of one's own acts on others.
People become mere objects, in a field of objects, to be manipulated for private advantage.
It is not the pathology of all human beings but the pathology of some humans that lies at the root of our current social and ecological crises. Predatory personalities among us are often in positions of control, where their pathologies are nurtured by the very structure of advanced industrial capitalist institutions. A socially concerned corporate manager who puts human interests ahead of profit maximization joins the ranks of the unemployed. It may not be strictly necessary to be a sociopath in order to be in a position of power in our society, but the rules of the game require doing a good imitation of one. Yet other, less socially harmful strategies for self-enhancement can be found for constructively meeting the needs of those consumed with the desire for power over others.