Mikah wrote:
DarthMetaKnight wrote:
FACT: A government is only bad if it is undemocratic.
I judge rulers by what they do, not how they come to rule.
Funny, historically those two concepts tend to be one and the same:
Ramses II of Egypt came to power as a pharaoh, ruled as a pharaoh;
Peisistratus of Athens came to power as a tyrant, ruled as a tyrant;
Darius of Persia came to power as a king, ruled as a king;
Pericles of Athens came to power as a politician, ruled as a politician;
Phillip II of Macedon came to power as a despot, ruled as a despot;
Julius Caesar of Rome came to power as a revolutionary, ruled as a revolutionary;
Octavian Caesar of Rome came to power as a nobleman, ruled as a nobleman;
If someone's approach gets them power, there's absolutely no reason for them to change the approach, thus the approach will remain the same unless a counterbalance forces the change. Not to mention rulers are merely figureheads for the underlying institutions/movements/bureaucracies that prop them up, the ruler doesn't change unless the system itself changes. The greatest example of this is Alexander: he conquered the Persian empire and large swaths of tribes leading to the Hindu Kush mountains, but when his underlying support changed (his army), it didn't really matter what he wanted he was forced to pack up and go home.