How Do Megalomaniacs Rise To Power?

In the above quote, Russell states that love for power is a basic human characteristic and we all are envious of the external world of matter and human beings. Those weak, insane men, who deny the existence of others, in their love for great power,and are violent when their pretension of holding a powerful position is questioned, are certified as lunatics and kept in asylum. On the other hand uncertified megalomaniacs or power mongers are made leaders of large groups, states or nations and given huge power to inflict pain and disaster upon all sane men who question their authority and pretensions of being a godly figure or God himself. Now the question arises, how do megalomaniacs rise to power? The answer is through deception, fraud, thievery,

Critics relate the play’s inspiration to Pinter’s findings about the torture and inhumane penitentiary practices in Turkey in 1985 and his anger at the inconsiderate and callous attitude of two young Turkish women toward their country’s human rights violation. The Kurds have experienced a long history of oppression as a minority group in Turkey since the 1920s when the map of the middle-east was revised with the Kurdish population finding themselves divided by four countries – Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and, Syria. Finding the massive Kurdish population as a threat to the existence of the Turkish government, the Turk rulers have for years curtailed the basic rights of the Kurdish people, made the Kurdish language illegal, forbade Kurdish schools, organizations and publications, confiscated Kurdish land and property and still today invade Kurdish districts, blow up Kurdish homes, jail Kurds for no reason other than being a Kurd, torture Kurdish prisoners. An evidence of the pinnacle of the megalomaniac condition of the Turkish rulers and their government officials can be seen in the declaration made by the Turkish Minister of Justice in

The above statement of the Turkish Minister of Justice also indicates that the laws are made by the totalitarian government according to their whims and fancy and the common abject masses will never get justice as their very existence is always under threat of extinction. Megalomaniac rulers unleash a reign of terror on the abjects as they are obsessed with the thought of being feared and revered by all and this instils in them the misconception of being invincible or godlike. Here it would be apt to quote Bertrand Russell’s views on the megalomaniac: The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history. Bertrand Russell (Conquest of