#despots

Politics, Book 5, section 1314a

“And it is a mark of a tyrant to dislike anyone that is proud or free-spirited; for the tyrant claims for himself alone the right to bear that character, and the man who meets his pride with pride and shows a free spirit robs tyranny of its superiority and position of mastery; tyrants therefore hate the proud as undermining their authority.

𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐭𝐲𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐠𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐧𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐢𝐦.

These and similar habits are characteristic of tyrants and preservative of their office, but they lack no element of baseness.

And broadly speaking, they are all included under three heads; for tyranny aims at three things:

First to keep its subjects humble - for a humble-spirited man would not plot against anybody,

Second to have them continually distrust one another - for a tyranny is not destroyed until some men come to trust each other, owing to which tyrants also make war on the respectable, as detrimental to their rule not only because of their refusal to submit to despotic rule, but also because they are faithful to one another and to the other citizens, and do not inform against one another nor against the others;

                                     The Big Lie

The Big Lie -- a Nazi propaganda technique that insists that if a political leader repeats a colossal untruth long enough, people will eventually believe it.