Many people found it disturbing because of the methods that he suggested for staying in power as a ruler. One example can be when he says that if you take down a king, you have numerous options what to do with his family. He further says that although there are many ways to handle them, history has proven that the most effective is to kill everyone, which made the people call him evil or much worse. He does not however state that this is his belief, but rather that this is what successful rulers throughout history did, so it's kind of a misunderstanding.
Remark
Let's begin with the theme. What is the theme of this passage, exactly? Four people -- five if you include Dr. Heidegger -- are sitting around a circle bemoaning the fact that they have lost something not granted to anyone. They have lost their second youth. They have swallowed some water which gave them their youth only for a fleeting moment (it seems to them), and they mourn the passage of time that grants them no more youth that they had been living in for some short period.
The four felt that way. Only Dr. Heidegger seemed to have learned something that told him that he should be careful what he wished for: he might actually get it.
We have two themes then. We have 4 who wished for their youth back and we have one who didn't want any part of it. I think we have to cover both.
The best detail for those wanting it is the old woman who apparently got her youth back and she was incredibly beautiful. Now her hands are skinny and likely wrinkled. She puts those hands to her face and wishes herself to be dead because she despises the fact that she is old (and likely all her friends are dead and she is condemned to a life of weariness. I speculate, but is certainly unhappy about the aging process). She mourns that it is over so quickly. They all do. That's sentence 3.
Only Dr. Heidegger seems to understand that they got something they should never have received in the first place. The yellow sentence beginning with "Well I bemoan it not, ... " reflects his point view as well as anything. That's sentence 5.
The writer of "The Instinct that Makes People Rich" interprets the Midas myth as the story of a man who could not fail.
Chesterton, however, says that Midas DID fail. He starved because he could not eat gold.
Chesterton says that success always comes at the sacrifice of something else, something "domestic." (By this he means that, yes, a millionaire has money but will lack something else, like love or friendship, etc.) He says that people who think Midas succeeded are just like the author of the article -- both worship money.
Chesterton says that worshipping money has nothing to do with success and everything to do with snobbery.
Offers to mow his lawn, give him money, etc
