EDITOR’S NOTE: This piece appears in the June 6th, 2005, issue of National Review.

There is no building in the world more philosophically instructive than the Palatul Parlamentului–formerly the Casa Poporului–in Bucharest. It is worth going all the way to Romania just to see it, for it has layers of meaning that provide an almost infinite scope for reflection. No one who has not seen it can grasp the full potential of human megalomania.

It is 15 years since the downfall and death of Ceausescu, the man who instigated the construction of this colossal edifice and its surrounding Centru Civic, destroying a wide swathe of old Bucharest in the process; and it is a testimony to the incompetence and venality of the local politicians ever since the revolution that nostalgia for the rule of the Romanian Nebuchadnezzar is by no means uncommon. One of his sons has even been asked to stand for president.

Facts about the Palatul Parlamentului tend to come in several versions, often expressed with unjustified confidence in their truth–for example, that 600, 700, and even 7,000 architects were employed in its construction. When the guide tells you that 20,000 people worked night and day on the palace for five years before Ceausescu’s death, though, you believe him; just as you would believe him if he told you that 40,000, or even 80,000 people, had worked to construct it. The scale is such that it bears no relation to anything by which you might judge such information. Besides, the details don’t really matter. What does it matter if a chandelier has 5,000 or 7,000 globes in a country in which, at the time of construction, the electricity supply was intermittent at best and the president publicly announced that the ideal room temperature in winter was 50 degrees, while 1,000 calories per day were really all that anyone needed to eat? . . .

YOU CAN READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE IN THE CURRENT ISSUE OF THE DIGITAL VERSION OF NATIONAL REVIEW. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A SUBSCRIPTION TO NR DIGITAL OR NATIONAL REVIEW, YOU CAN SIGN UP FOR A SUBSCRIPTION TO NATIONAL REVIEW here OR NATIONAL REVIEW DIGITAL here (a subscription to NR includes Digital access).