As a corollary it should be noted that the apparent contradiction to the above principle illustrated by the effect of demagogues on their followers can be explained as actually being produced by the same cause. The effective demagogue does not operate by overt instruction or indoctrination, but through the power of suggestion and by lending an apparent legitimacy to sentiments, beliefs and dispositions already extant in a self-selected audience. The would-be autocrat never fails to flatter and lionize what the people think they know and understand. In this way the thwarted, overinflated sense of agency arising in a population deprived of genuine political representation or opportunities for advancement, expression, etc., is presented with a focus for these energies, like a static charge suddenly given a pathway to ground, thus endowing the manipulator with the temporary illusion of control. But it is only an illusion: take away the underlying sentiments seized upon by the demagogue, or sufficiently alter the conditions responsible for their occurrence, and their power is quickly shown to be nothing. Without this inital "static charge" of disenfranchisement and discontent, scarcely any effect is observed.
The real power, as ever, lies with the body politic, in its distorted and excessive regard for the advancement of the interests of a few over that of the many; that is to say over its own interests at large, which today's political leaders are rarely in any position to dispute. What other name or descriptor can we rightly give to the aggrandizement of such an ideal, but egoism?
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