Corporal Punishment?

[Violet]

First of all we're not talking about a monarch and a country, we're talking about the common misbehavior of a child. Secondly, saying that a monarch has to choose between only those two arbitrary choices during their rule is your own delusional fantasy. Catherine the Great was beloved, but she was known to be strong and disciplined in her reign. Regardless, the actions of an entire country's population regarding their ruler has NOTHING to do with the daily light discipline of a child. Apples and oranges.

Is there so much difference between parenting and ruling a kingdom? I see difference in scale alone.

An empire must maintain control if it is to maintain existence. Catherine the Great was beloved indeed... she gained some good land and didn't butcher her own people to do so (at least nothing on level with what Russians are used to). She was even a good thing for education and the arts. Firmness, strength, and discipline are not lacking as a result of being beloved. Infact they've little to do with it. One could be strong and disciplined and be a butcher so easily as they could be a nobleman.

You call apples and oranges, I call big apples and little apples.

Utterly ridiculous and your conclusion is a non-sequitur. Balance is essential to survival to everything on this planet. It's everywhere, and anywhere the world is out of balance - chaos follows. Balance of power, balance in the environment, balance in economics, balance of government .... essential to survival and essential to good discipline.

On the contrary: what you suggest is contradiction. That one should butcher their people and grant innumerable favors to their people. What this tells your people (or indeed, child) is that you are unbalanced... perhaps even crazy.

You cannot have balance when it comes to control. You can have only what I spake you could have: a government fallen.