Sic Semper Tyrannis

Kevin Mokento | Monday April 25, 2022 06:00

Apart from serving as emperors, one more thing they had in common was the fact that they had 31-day calendar months named after them. The original version of the Latin expression is attributed to the assassination of Julius Caesar, while the shorter revised version is credited to an American stage actor named John Wilkes Booth following the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln, who served as the 16th president of the United States of America.

Closely linked to the two Latin expressions is another phrase that was popularised by Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the US, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Franklin had wanted this expression to form part of the Union’s principal symbol, the Seal of the US. Had Franklin been endowed with unchallengeable powers, alongside the phrase, “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God,” this venerated symbol would have the image of the biblical prophet Moses pointing at the Red Sea, causing the waters to swallow the Pharoah who had persecuted ancient Israelites.

But this time the polymath did not have his way. In 1782, a seal with a bald eagle at its centre was officially approved. Quite instructive is the fact that Franklin wanted that expression to be crafted on a very important national symbol that has endured for close to two and half centuries. Interestingly, Franklin was part of the committee that delivered the 1776 Declaration of Independence, a document that declared the US’ autonomy from Great Britain. Among other things it stated, “When a long train of abuses and usurpations...evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” Generally, mankind abhors tyranny. Julius Caesar was a tyrant who at some stage declared himself Dictator Perpetuo, meaning Dictator in Perpetuity. In effect, he was a soi-disant Rome’s Dictator for Life.

However, he was not born a dictator.

His excessive ambition and boundless infatuation with untrammelled authority compelled him to manoeuvre his way into amassing absolute power, akin to monarchical supremacy, but unlike modern-day titular monarchs, he was vested with the authority to run the government. Along the way, Julius Caesar killed many people and earned himself a lot of enemies. Julius Caesar was blessed with the gift of the gab. Adolf Hitler possessed a similar trademark and was considered a man of unparalleled charismatic eloquence in the delivery of nauseatingly self-aggrandising speeches. Consummate notoriety was inextricably welded to Hitler’s ability to exploit the magical power woven into carefully chosen and passionately delivered words that seductively beguiled his audiences.

This explains why the Nazis unquestioningly and remorselessly partook in the massacre of millions of innocent people during his reign of terror. In his book titled, Caesar: Life of a Colossus, Adrian Goldsworthy states, “In his fifty-six years, he was at times many things, including a fugitive, prisoner, rising politician, army leader, legal advocate, rebel, dictator - perhaps even a god - as well as a husband, father, lover and adulterer.” As a commander of the army, he led by example. He moved with his troops, on sunny and rainy days, always hatless but never powerless, covering as much as a whopping 160 kilometres each day. Introspection time now.

Do you fit this grim profile or some parts of it? Do you know anyone who fits this profile? As the saying goes, if the shoe fits, wear it. I would add, wear it, irrespective of whether it fits tightly or not. What’s the point? Apart from a few outliers who start off brutal from the get-go, in many respects, many men who evolve into dictators start off as normal human beings like you and me. Given their friendly temperament, you would be fooled into thinking that their name and the word dictator would never appear in one sentence. In time, they tend to energetically formulate crafty ways of endearing themselves to the people, winning their confidence, and in the process, they would luxuriate in converting their subjects into willing accomplices to tyranny. At this stage, the morally vacuous dictators would have emerged victorious in their ploy to coerce the people into supplanting reality with idealism.

In many instances, dictators are brilliant strategists and master orators who have an unnerving knack for posturing as shining straight-laced beacons of progress, equity and inclusivity.

They would effortlessly work their way into the hearts of people endowed with a compromised intellectual bandwidth, and once positioned in the comfort of such people’s unsuspecting cushy hearts, through a well-executed elaborate hoax, they would fully stretch their limbs at leisure, institute a massive crackdown on human rights, mercilessly drive the shape up or ship out agenda, throw crises into gear, and gradually tear apart the network of arteries and veins forming the national cardiovascular system and destroy the socio-political health of the state. In this environment, patriotism, accountability and freedom of expression would decline as unending waves of jingoism, boosterism, power grab, violation of civil rights, self-serving policies made on the hoof and autocracy soar under the rubric of command and control.

For people who suddenly find themselves at the claws of dictatorships, tyranny is no trifling matter. It is precisely for this reason that, generally, the mentality captured in the sic semper tyrannis phrase resonates with many people, particularly when combined with the inclination to cling to the disposition of ‘Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.’ All things being equal, this twin combination is considered an effective bulwark against tyranny. Granted, it takes considerable willpower to stand up to tyranny, but some of those who have done so have advised that they were spurred on by the thought-provoking words of Haile Selassie, the former emperor of Ethiopia, “Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”