The Roman Empire went on for a long time after it had become a parody of itself. In fact, it went on for a long time after it became a dysfunctional meta-parody of the earlier dictatorial rubber-stamp-legislature parody of itself. It's just that competent individuals kept appearing and propping it up enough for it to keep going.

If there's anything absurd, it's the notion of a historical individual being able to find a non-dysfunctional part of the world to move to. However, we now have the Internet and air travel.