| It must have been hard to live in Nero's Rome. Not just because he was capricious and tyrannical, but because he was the living embodiment of chaos and nonsense. One day, he's banishing a poet for being too talented. On another, he's trying to murder his mother. Here he is rigging the Olympics so he could be recognized as a winner. Here he is in a public ceremony marrying his boyfriend, who bears a striking resemblance to his dead wife. Here he is levying more and more taxes upon the provinces to fund his lavish lifestyle. Here he is ignoring his military duties leading to uprising and revolts throughout the empire. Here he is watching the city burn. Here he is screwing up another negotiation. Here he is locking the Roman elite in the theater to watch him perform on stage as an actor or singer for hours on end. It must have been exhausting. This is what chaotic, dysfunctional leaders do—because they can't help themselves…and also because it serves them. With their inexhaustible supply of ego and incompetence, they distract and divide their opponents. They keep everyone on their backfoot. They make it hard to tell the serious from the silly, the urgent from the unbelievable. Wasn't this what tripped up Seneca? He was so busy trying to put out fires and prevent damage that he lost sight of the fact that he was essentially enabling the arsonist. Today, good and decent people all over the world are reeling from the efforts of strongmen and autocrats. Everyday seems to bring more chaos and contradictory reports. Each passing hour a new outrage, each more overwhelming than the last. We must recognize that this is partly their strategy. They "flood the zone with shit" as one advisor to such a leader has put it—confusing our priorities as well as our basic perceptions. To resist, we must first regain command of ourselves. We can't let them provoke and distract us. We can't let them make us despair either. We must remain sober. We must regroup. We must ignore the "shit" and come together to defeat the flood. If not, we risk being wiped out and washed away by its chaos and tyranny.
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