The Great Men of Infamy

If you lack the natural panache and the

tragic glamour of an Napoleon or an

Alexander in their sweeping domination of

the global order and you fear the failure of 

your legacy, craving for the kind of craven

notoriety that accrues to cold-eyed dictators

for whom humanity is dross and the greatest

achievement is the attainment of personal glory

then what the world thinks of  you is of no

moment. If you cannot be liked and admired

for your countless failings at decency, justice

and civilized values reflecting the devious lack

of conscience that is your special gift by fate

there is always the fallback of succumbing to

what comes naturally to a psychopath for whom

singling out critics for a gruesome death or

ordering your military to attack defenceless

civilian populations defiant against a violent

invasion  arouses spite. Ruling an irenic nation by 

a tyrant whose ambitions never stray from entitlement 

as a once-great power to uproot the human rights 

of others requires the determined endurance of 

a single-minded despot, one for whom campaigns 

fraught with atrocities large and small have never 

deterred the implacable from the violent pursuit 

of realizing their aspirations. The names trip easily 

off the tongues of legions for whom the obscene 

pursuit of power and wealth accompanied by hatred 

and brutality represents the sinister success of the

world's fiendish maniacs competing for notice.