True power is not in ruling over others, but in rising beyond them. Do not accept the moral and social frameworks imposed by the State, rather create your own values.
You speak of good emperors, good presidents, good kings... yes, good for whom? For the herd, perhaps, who fear the burden of their own freedom and gladly kneel before a ruler who promises order.
No, it is not I who am defeated, but those who still believe in this dream of better governance.
Lots of high-minded ideals.
Very little practicality, or acknowledgment of how the world is, rather than how you’d wish it to be.
What is truly impractical if not this endless cycle of governance? You believe yourself worldly, yet you are the one clinging to a fantasy... that power can be tamed, that the State can serve something higher than itself.
You call it "high-minded," but it is you who seek comfort in the low, in what is, rather than in what could be.
