My daughter is studying governments and needed some examples of dictators. A Google search led her to say, "Boy, everybody hates Hitler!" I gave her more examples, but they were all from the past 100 years. Before World War II, did any one person serve as a metaphor for oppression, cruelty, and all-around evil? Slate tackles the question.
But he wasn't the only example, just the most commonly used. Link -via Breakfast Links
The Pharoah. In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, many Americans and Europeans had a firmer grasp of the bible than of the history of genocidal dictators. Orators in search of a universal symbol for evil typically turned to figures like Judas Iscariot, Pontius Pilate, or, most frequently, the Pharaoh of Exodus, who chose to endure 10 plagues rather than let the Hebrew people go. In Common Sense, Thomas Paine wrote: “No man was a warmer wisher for reconciliation than myself, before the fatal nineteenth of April, 1775 [the date of the Lexington massacre], but the moment the event of that day was made known, I rejected the hardened, sullen tempered Pharaoh of England for ever.” In the run-up to the Civil War, abolitionists regularly referred to slaveholders as modern-day Pharaohs. Even after VE Day, Pharaoh continued to pop up in the speeches of social reformers like Martin Luther King Jr.
But he wasn't the only example, just the most commonly used. Link -via Breakfast Links
It had a reason, but Miss Cellania deleted Ryan's offensive comment. So now it just looks like I don't know how to spell ignorance myself.
Miss C, if you want to delete my reply to Ryan's comment, you can. It's obviously causing confusion when read out of context.
[rolleyes]
Read about the hill Genghis Khan and the Golden Horde, gadding about Asia and stacking mountains of tens of thousands of freshly cut heads in Baghdad, the Indus Valley, and hundreds of other cities and towns.
The Mongols get my vote.
Irony note: Amused to see Tom Paine invoking Pharoh. For many years, it was HE who was villified, due to his intelligent writings on religion. Historically, Europeans often used Atilla and the Huns as examples of evil.