@slatestarscratchpad wrote an article criticizing the generalization of the Rat Park experiment to humans.
Some possible candidates they gave for the Human Park were modern celebrities and Mongolian despots who lead lives of extreme luxury and decadance in non-drug ways. (at least 3x10^3 concubines, etc)
I… do not agree with this. In fact, I think that these kinds of situations tend to breed misery (and that often the grotesque hedonistic entertainment is more a dull vacation from the misery than anything else).
Yeah, if we’re going purely by material wealth then Bojack Horseman should be one of the happiest people alive. Ghengis Kahn’s heir even strikes me as a strong parallel to Bojack: someone who’s coasting on a fading past glory while steadily drinking himself to death.
This is not really a viable take on Ogedei Khan (and seems to have missed some of the information that @slatestarscratchpad came right out and said).
The man conquered Persia, the Jin Dynasty, Korea, and big chunks of both Europe and India. Ain’t no “coasting on a fading past glory” up in here.
More to the point: heavy is the head that wears the crown, it’s true, but if you have to be king then being the khan of a nomadic warrior horde is probably the most psychologically-healthy way to do it (for normal-minded people). Nomad courts run on a personal-loyalty-focused system rather than an office/title-based system, so most of your top-level flunkies are in fact your buddies rather than random power-holders you’re forever trying to placate. The whole horse-nomad thing means that there’s a lot less infrastructure for you to navigate, a lot less specialized institutional knowledge that other people can wield against you, many fewer dark corners where your enemies can lurk and plot.
Besides, Ogedei dedicated much of his life to bureaucratizing and reforming the Mongolian government. Which may have led to some neuroses for his successors, but it did mean that he had a Big Worthwhile Project, even aside from conquering much of the known world.