Why do we love dictators?: Inquirer columnist

President Rodrigo Duterte. - Reuters

MANILA (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN): "I believe that from time to time, men are created whom I call volunteers of providence, in whose hands are placed the destiny of their countries. I believe I am one of those men," wrote Louis Napoleon, the elected dictator who would dominate mid-19th century France until his humiliating defeat at the hands of the Prussians in the Battle of Sedan (1870).

Megalomania, it seems, ran in the family. Louis Napoleon was the nephew of the original Napoleon, Napoleon Bonaparte, who almost single-handedly changed the course of modern history.