In Defense of Megalomania

To be called a megalomaniac is not, generally speaking, a good thing. The word is synonymous with the worst sort of ambition, the kind of infamy that makes a man recognizable by just one name. Napoleon. Hitler. Mao. The megalomaniac is obsessed with power, and not just amassing it but exercising it, wielding it, using it to shape the world. He is Shelley’s Ozymandias, immortalized in stone at the height of his powers: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!