Megalomania plus cult is dangerous

We box our leaders into a moral binary - all greatness or all sin. The reality is that it is a mix, and what you see is what you get

The fable of Icarus flying too close to the sun is well known. All leaders have their Icarus moments (temporary megalomania) as alluded to in my 2019 book Crash. Permanent megalomania, however, is a neurotic condition; when combined with cult-building, drastic dangers arise. You know that tyranny brews when you see megalomania and cult emulsifying.

Megalomania plus cult debacles of Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom became clear in hindsight — could they have been anticipated as the symptoms developed? What about YES Bank, Jet Airways, Kingfisher, and the smoke signals from Patanjali? Recall a megalomaniacal Voltas leader in the early 1980s,