“Power is like a drug,” wrote Primo Levi. The need for either is unknown to anyone who has not tried them, but after the initiation … the dependency and need for ever larger doses is born, as are the denial of reality and the return to childish dreams of omnipotence … The syndrome produced by protracted and undisputed power is clearly visible: a distorted view of the world, dogmatic arrogance, the need for adulation, convulsive clinging to the levers of command, and contempt for the law.
