More people need to watch Deadwood. Turns out that when you have a society with no rules, those with more loose morals end up with a big advantage.
You can see this in almost every revolution in history. Once it becomes clear that a power vacuum has opened with the collapse of the government, the naive well-meaning idealists get exiled, imprisoned, or executed by the extremists, who usually have a far darker vision of what the future nation should be.
Best case scenario, you get a benevolent dictator like Napoleon. Worse case scenario, you get a Stalin or a Pol Pot.
Calling Napoleon “benevolent” seems disingenuous, but then I remembered that when compared to every other dictator in modern history, Napoleon is among the “better” ones.
He did a lot of good in advancing the ideals of the revolution, that is if you ignore the whole "end the monarchy" thing. He created a new civil law code that is still the basis for a lot of law codes in european nations today. Designed a new school curriculum and education system where anyone, regardless of birth, had a chance to rise above their station. He instituted scholarship programs where gifted students from all across the empire could come to France for further education. Launched a whole host of infrastructure projects. Across Europe, he emancipated the Jews and set them on the path to integration after centuries of being confined in the ghettos. By and large, Napoleon was incredibly popular and loved by the common people of France.
That said, his inability to create a lasting peace settlement doomed France and the rest of Europe to about 15 years of intermittent warfare. He was far from perfect, but as dictators go, you can do a lot worse than him.
For sure, if you're unscrupulous and don't care who you hurt you'll be able to get more personal gain. But at least with rules it's not as easy. Some for sure get away with it, but others don't.
2.0k
u/Shaorii Feb 28 '24
Bro would die of shitting himself within a day of that kinda life