Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor portrayed himself and those like him as lonely, alien creatures, condemned to help people free themselves from moral freedom. His implementation of autocracy was, on his account, nothing but taking the obvious and necessary path that would have been chosen by the people, if they understood their own actual needs as well as he did.
As I have argued, this set of lies covers up, in my view, a fundamental misanthropy, and typically one coupled with clinical sadism. They may use proxies for their torture, but they know it is going on, because they ordered it.
It does seem to me, though, that there are and need to be positive such leaders as well, whose burden consists in freedom from the restraints and consolations of fixed identities and ideals. Religion is a consolation, because it gives you a place to occupy, an identity, a social network, thoughts to fill your mind with that don’t vary. Consistency is a species of eternity here on earth. It is rest.
But no religion, per se, can be final. Always, always, always, life is evolving. It is comforting for many to believe that compassion and empathy are always virtuous, but when they lead to the ascension to power of people who are cruel and violent, they are no longer virtues. They are rejections of necessity, of perception, of Goodness.
Most people do not want this degree of freedom, in my view, and since the contributions of religion are vastly superior to those of Leftism and Scientism, they are to be valued over inferior moral doctrines, which in most cases is to say empty moral doctrines. There is no content to Leftism. There is neither empathy nor justice.
The Good person, though, must accept being “Just So”, in manners which vary by time and place. To be maximally receptive, you must be empty. This is in the Tao Te Ching. This is a burden if you focus on what you are leaving behind, and a source of enthusiasm if you place your emphasis on what can be learned, and what new trails can be found and communicated to others.