The Renaissance had reached its greatest glory … Yet in a land known as Moscovy the dark ages lingered and a nation struggled daily to avoid economic and political collapse. The force that would save it was embodied in a man, a volatile mixture of piety and ruthless intrigue, whose cunning and cruelty would one day control the largest nation on Earth … Tsar Ivan the Terrible. History’s Most Hated s1e8: Ivan the Terrible
A tumultuous nearly bankrupt country Ivan had inherited: compared to Europe, Russia was primitive. It was a nation with no banks, no form of road or essential infrastructure. ibid.
Terrible was meant as a term of respect for a leader who possessed awesome power … The irony would not be apparent for years. ibid.
The Tsar was a man teetering on sanity’s edge. ibid.
The result is that many old certainties appear far less certain, and history shows that in troubled times people often turn to someone who promises they can fix all the problems if only they’re granted supreme power. And that is the appeal of the dictator. David Olusoga, A Timewatch Guide: Dictators & Despots, BBC 2019
The rise and fall of the most recent dictators followed by television cameras in ever closer detail. So why are dictators such an object of fascination? And does our fascination feed their power? ibid.
Caesar was notoriously vain about his appearance … Even without TV, Julius Caesar hit upon a way of spreading his image throughout the known world. ibid.
Mussolini was the first to exploit brand new mass media. ibid.
Mussolini’s showmanship impressed one person in particular, and with terrible consequences. ibid.
Was there something about their era that made fascism inevitable? ibid.
They loved the camera and the camera loved them. ibid.
The more I learnt about colonialism, the more I realised it always started with men like Kurtz [Heart of Darkness]. And their effects linger to this day. Arena: African Apocalypse, Femi Nylander reporting, BBC 2021
At the same time as Conrad was writing his book, life was imitating art in an astounding way. A French army officer was leading an invasion of west African, and his true story was even more terrifying than Conrad’s fiction. ibid.
Mutilation as punishment for refusal. ibid.
The are a few candidates: a notorious German captain in Namibia, a Belgium ivory hunter, even the arch-imperialist Cecil Rhodes, whose statue stands in Oxford high street. As a student, I campaigned to bring his statue down … [and] a French army officer called Paul Voulet … ibid.
Wounded Knee Massacre: East Indians killed: 300; Survivors: 51 (4 men, 47 women), Army casualties: 25 dead. Exterminate All the Brutes IV: The Bright Colours of Fascism, HBO 2021
Frank Baum: The pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends on the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better in order to protect our civilisation follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the Earth. The fact is, the Native Americans are still here, and this is still their home … The real fight remains the fight for self-determination and restitution. ibid.
You are made to hate each other because upon that hatred is rested the keystone of the arch of financial despotism which enslaves you both. Tom Watson, cited Plutocracy: Political Repression in the USA I: Divide and Rule, 2015
107,074. Suharto ranks right along with Saddam Hussein as one of the worst mass murderers and torturers of the latter part of the twentieth century. (Indonesia & Despotism & Dictator) Noam Chomsky, Merrimack College, The Onslaught Against Freedom and Democracy Led by the Bush Administration Reactionaries
Bureaucracy, the rule of no one, has become the modern form of despotism. Mary McCarthy
Terror for a revolutionary government is very different from the terror used by tyrants in the past. Because now it meant the destruction of those whose moral corruption was barring the way to a new society of virtue. Terror has become the despotism of liberty against tyranny. Maximilien Robespierre
The busy life of an interstellar despot. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s6e3: Sons and Daughters, Kira to Gul Dukat