one had to ask oneself what was being given up , and for what purpose , and whether that purpose was indeed worthwhile , or if it was just a bunch of smoke conjured up by well-intentioned individuals who wished to give hope to the hopeless , for little other reason than to protect political power , if not to channel their own boredom in a way more positive than could otherwise be done through simple indulgence ( even the most tyrannical of emperors occasionally tired of continual fighting , feasting and fornication for long enough to give judicious ruling a goconceivably out of an alien sense of compassion , but more conceivably , out of their innate sense of self-righteousness ) .