On Seeking Popularity

"Of all the adversaries and enviers of his (Camillus') glory, Marcus Manlius was the most distinguished... This man, affecting the first place in the commonwealth, and not able by noble ways to outdo Camillus's reputation, took that ordinary course toward usurpation of absolute power, namely, to gain the multitude, those of them especially that were in debt; defending some by pleading their causes against their creditors, rescuing others by force, and not suffering the law to proceed against them; insomuch that in a short time he got great numbers of indigent people about him, whose tumults and uproars in the forum struck terror into the principal citizens." From Plutarch's Lives

Of course, seeing what is happening does not solve the problem. Perhaps this is a danger of prioritizing equality over justice and righteousness.