In quiet and untroubled times it
seems to every administrator that it is only by his efforts that
the whole population under his rule is kept going, and in this
consciousness of being indispensable every administrator finds
the chief reward of his labor and efforts. While the sea of
history remains calm the ruler-administrator in his frail bark,
holding on with a boat hook to the ship of the people and
himself moving, naturally imagines that his efforts move the
ship he is holding on to. But as soon as a storm arises and the
sea begins to heave and the ship to move, such a delusion is no
longer possible. The ship moves independently with its own
enormous motion, the boat hook no longer reaches the moving
vessel, and suddenly the administrator, instead of appearing a
ruler and a source of power, becomes an insignificant, useless,
feeble man.
Leo Tolstoy
-- War and Peace --