Are Dictators really so bad?
I recently had the chance to ask Ryan Holiday why he keeps talking about Julius Caesar as if he was a tyrant. This is a man who built roads and monuments, brought immense wealth into Rome, and upon his death, willed 300 sesterces ($3200USD) to each Roman citizen. Ryan said that it's because he was a populist and a demagogue, and he was doing these things for the people, but it was really in his own interests. I guess my thought on that is: "and?" Like if you are a narcissist and you do all these nice things for the people in order to be loved, obviously it's not ideal, but I imagine it's better than not helping at all? At least everyone is all aligned. I'd rather a narcissist who for their own ego, will actually try to benefit whatever state / country, than a non-narcissist who is just a puppet to who knows who. This is a hypothetical but I imagine there aren't many non-narcissists in power. What do you think?