Leaders who become intoxicated with themseleves can't govern - Proverbs 31

Proverbs 31:5

For they will drink and forget what is decreed,

And pervert the rights of all the afflicted.

In this proverb the writer (King Lemuel) is telling his son the results of what can happen to leadership when they forget their way or lose their bearings.   In the immediate context it is about a leader who get's drunk and forgets what he/she previously "decreed" and then ends up perverting justice.   It is talking primarily about alcohol.   However, it applies to being "intoxicated" with anything that caused you to lose your bearings.   The thought may come immediately to the king who tossed Daniel into the lion's den.   Or, the three Hebrew boys being tossed into the firey-furnace by that king.  Here Daniel and his three friends had been faithful and wise servants to the king.   But, because the king because "drunk" on his own power and his own ego he perverted justice and tried to kill the very ones who had saved his life and his kingdom.   Pilate was so drunk with power and fear he refused to save Christ (although God used his "drunk" state to accomplish His end).   Too many leaders get intoxicated on power, prestige, position, pennies, that they lose sight of their responsibility to be just and right in their leadership.   Drinking to the point of being drunk will do it.  But, it is not only the bottle that steers the leader to make foolish decisions.   We are not to forget the decrees that will guide us to treat others justly.   Don't get so intoxicated by the world and what is shinny that you forget the acts of mercy and justice (Micah 6:8).