I have been listening to "Out of Mao's Shadow" by Phillip Pan. It's the story of the last years of Mao in China, a time when the governing party tried rigorously to control expression of ideas. As I listened, I thought of the story "1984" by George Orwell. The idea of suppressing dissent, imprisoning and executing those who expressed alternate views and disagreement with the policies and practices of the government is one that we are all familiar with. I am not much of a student of history but I wouldn't be surprised if all governments have an imperfect record of supporting human rights. But the idea of erasing the record of someone's existence, of trying to make the historical record show only what some people desire it to show, of controlling the past, is not a new one but still seems pathetic as well as cruel, pointless, and ultimately an impossibility.
I wonder if ancient emperors and kings tried to convince people they were perfect, divine, flawless. I imagine that modern photography, tv, and other media make possible attempts at trying to get every citizen to know and revere the great leader. It might not have been as tempting when a few statues and portraits were more or less the limit of saying who this marvel was. The Bible does refer to Ceasar's image on coins so maybe the cult of personality was also a possibility then. The more I think about it, the more I remember the divine birth or parentage of even the pharoahs, so I suppose the tendency to worship and to encourage worship does go back a long way. As I check on "pharoah" and find that such rulers were explicity the political and the religious leader in one, I see how limited is my experience and my idea of a leader and commander of the people.
