Compulsion of leaders to leave permanent monuments

Having assumed discretionary powers for life, dictators want to remain in history even after their death. The Pharaohs organized the building of the pyramids. The Roi Soleil sponsored the erection of Versailles. The reigning princes of smaller countries have raised churches, cathedrals and other places of worship. Some leaders of today distinguish themselves, not by erecting holy places, but by destroying them, as is happening with the massive changing of watercourses and canal building in Romania today. While they raise megalomanic edifices in immortal memory of themselves, the national economies of their countries are destroyed and the sufferings of millions upon millions of people attain paroxysmal levels.