How to be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century

This week’s book joined my library a year ago after a frustrating week reading another book about Cults, so I looked for something better, which is this week’s book of the week, How to be a Dictator: The Cult of Personality in the Twentieth Century by Frank Dikötter.

I am not sure if this is the book I am looking for on cults. When I read Cultish, I was so disappointed because the author was terribly biased and unwilling to see anything that didn’t fit with her world view of evil AS evil. So that book, I disliked, even though, to be fair, the key points were there. This…is probably still not what I was looking for in understanding cults, but I am ok with it, because the author hit both sides of the political spectrum as evil. What do I mean by that. He fully acknowledged and provided examples of both fascism AND communism as evil. Also…this was not a book about cults per se. As the subtitle specifies, it’s about a Cult of Personality. So, what is that?

I am actually going to refer Wikipedia on this one, mostly because I think the author assumes knowledge of the term. So a Cult is social group defined by unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object or goal. A Cult of Personality is the result of an effort which is made to create an idealized heroic image of a leader by a government, often through unquestioning flattery and praise.

So that is the specific difference. I THINK I have found a book specifically addressing cults, that will hopefully be unbiased politically, that I will get to in November. Sorry folks, but my list is basically set for this year, and November was the quickest I could squish in a book about cults. But it’s ok! Because THIS book is about a Cult of Personality, and how dictators use political machinations to cement their own power base.

Now, as Dikötter specifies in his preface, there were over 100 governments in the 20th century that met the definition of a dictator, or a political leader who possesses absolute power. However, not all dictators courted the cult of personality ideal. One example he gives of a dictator who did not seek cult status was Pol Pot, who hid his crimes behind the Khmer Rouge, rather than creating his own cult following.

Specifically, Dikötter singled out eight 20th century dictators who embraced the cult of personality on their way to power. Interestingly, of the eight, seven knew each other or their heirs, and used each other to prop up their own regimes.

The eight he picked out were Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, Mao Zedong, Kim il Sung, Duvalier, Ceausescu, and Mengistu. Mussolini and Hitler were fascists, Duvalier was simply despotic although he despised communists, and the rest, Stalin, Mao, Kim Ceausescu, and Mengistu, were all communists.

A quick rundown of the connections: Mussolini and Hitler unquestionably knew each other, as they had a bit of a mutual admiration society going on prior to WWII and were allies as the Axis powers during WWII. Stalin knew Hitler, they were allies at the start of WWII, although Stalin always maintained an inherent distrust in Hitler based on Mein Kampf and borne out by Hitler’s subsequent betrayal during WWII. Stalin propped up both Mao Zedong and Kim il Sung while those dictators oversaw their own communist revolutions. For their part, Mao and Kim propped up Ceausescu and Mengistu. The odd man out in this medley of murderous madness is Papa Doc Duvalier of Haiti. He was never embraced by the communists, but rather sought out alliance with the United States against Castro in Cuba in the 1960’s and 70’s.

There are definite running themes for all the dictators highlighted in this book. None of them came from wealthy or politically connected families, yet all rose to power and created a myth about themselves and their origins.

That myth almost universally consisted of a humble man who was called to serve by popular vote. Even though the popular vote was typically manufactured by military coupe. Once they have reached power, the dictator will start eliminating political rivals, typically through politically sanctioned murder, but sometimes, depending on the circumstances, by shaming them into submission. Mao Zedong was particularly adept at this and kept political rivals in check by making them vow eternal allegiance, and publicly shaming them for failure to toe the party line.

And all of them surrounded themselves with sycophants, adoring toadies who would tell them that every decision they made was spot on, and the sun shone out their buttholes.

Hand in hand with the toadies and the myth of the popular support, came control of the media. Because if they can control the media, the dictator can spread the belief of the popular support. Every dictator highlighted in this book took control of news outlets and would not allow dissenting opinions to be printed.

In line with the control of media, almost all the dictators insisted on public parades celebrating their success as leaders. In the case of Mengistu, at least, the Korean’s arrived on site and threatened Ethiopians who refused to parade with brutal beatings and starvation if they did not participate. Ethiopia in the 1980s was already starving to death. The threat of less food was effective in securing cooperation from the local populace.

In the communist countries, all of them used Marxist/Leninist thought to seize control, then began phasing out Marx and Lenin as important to the ideology. Except in Russia. I think even today, those two remain leading figures in the country’s zeitgeist.

And violence. All of them used extreme violence against the people they purported to rule, to seize and maintain control of their respective countries. It is interesting that of all of these, the only cult of personality to live past the creator’s death is North Korea, where the Kim family is on the third generation of dictator. However, the Kim family is not the only one to try and keep the cult going past death, merely the only one to succeed. When Stalin, Mao, and Kim died, at least, the people were expected to loudly mourn the loss of their leaders. And if you didn’t mourn loudly enough, you might still find yourself thrown into camps for reeducation. I personally find it distasteful when one of our former president’s dies and the hate is piled on the deceased on social media, but at the same time, thank God we live in a country where it is still possible to display your contempt, regardless of how poor the timing.

So, all of them rose through political chicanery. All of them had a robust underground working against them, or at least willing to speak truth in the right circumstances. So, what do I mean by that. Some countries broke free once death occurred. Some directly overthrew their dictators. And one is still living under a dictatorship. Let’s break this down.

Mussolini was trying to escape Italy in April 1945 when he was captured by communist partisans and shot. April 30, 1945, Hitler shot himself and wife Eva Braun in Hitler’s Berlin bunker, ahead of the Red army’s invasion of Berlin. Their cult of personality did not survive them, although there are “neo nazi’s” cropping up all over the world, they base their cults around a dead man, and are pretty widely derided as loons and all around despicable human beings.

Stalin died on March 5, 1953, after a cerebral hemorrhage, and his cult limped along under his successor, Nikita Krushev, until the Soviet Union ultimately collapsed 38 years later under Mikhail Gorbachev. But, following Stalin’s death, Krushev actually decried the cult of personality, which caused problems for Mao and Kim in China and N Korea respectively. It was Krushev’s denouncement of the cult of personality that started the breaks of China and N Korea with Russia. But a new cult is rising in Russia with Vladimir Putin; however, it iss yet to be seen how he will control media with social media being a bit of a wild card.

Mao Zedong died on September 9, 1976, following a massive heart attack. The groundwork for a cult of personality was well laid, and Xi Jingping has now been voted in as chairman for life in China, despite laws having been passed following Mao’s death ostensibly intended to prevent anyone from seizing lifelong power. Xi Jingping is doing everything he can to control social media in China today. But dictators of the 20th century did not have to worry about YouTwitFace contradicting them. Putin and Xi are trying to combat the relative anarchy of social media and the denouncements from unhappy citizens online. With good effect, too. People here tend to forget that YouTwitFace are businesses and ultimately they want to make money. They lose out in millions of followers and probably billions of dollars if they aren’t allowed to operate in China and Russia, and so they have a heavy profit motive for cracking down on dissenting voices in those countries, on behalf of those overbearing governmental controls.

Papa Doc Duvalier is the only one to include a truly religious element to his cult of personality, embracing and selling the idea that he was the living embodiment of the Vodun spirit Baron Samedi, the god of death. He used his Tontoun Macoutes as death squads and I feel like I read in Serpent and the Rainbow that the Macoutes would turn political dissidents over to be zombified. I should re-read Serpent and the Rainbow, that was a good book. Papa Doc died of heart disease and complications from diabetes on April 21, 1971. His cult of personality limped along for 15 years under his son, Jean-Claude Duvalier aka Baby Doc before Baby Doc was overthrown and lived most of the rest of his life in exile in France.

Nicolae Ceausescu was the Romanian dictator installed by the soviets in 1965 and his cult of personality was almost entirely propped up by his extended family, who he granted positions of power in Romania. His is one of the few dictatorial regimes to be overthrown by the people he purported to rule. Stalin, Mao, Kim, Hitler, Duvalier…everyone up till now, with the exception of Mussolini and Hitler, had died of natural causes. And since Mussolini was shot by an invading army and Hitler was shot by himself, you can’t really claim they were overthrown by the people. Ceausescu was overthrown by the Romanian people. Following a long series of declines in general wealth and happiness, as we have seen time and again under communist rule, with only the elites getting richer, as is common under communist rule, Ceausescu set up a big public speech on December 21, 1989. And misread the mood in the crowd. The problem with surrounding yourself with sycophants, is that the sycophants who consistently tell you the sun is shining out your butthole will also misread the room. When Ceausescu started blaming the fascists for everything, chasing that good old left/right divide, the crowd started booing him. When his wife and second in command, Elena Petrescu tried to shame the crowd into silence, the crowd attacked, and the Ceausescu’s were forced to flee. They were caught several days later and executed by firing squad, their sycophants made to scatter. And democracy was restored to Romania.

Last up is Mengistu Haile Mariam. He seized control of Ethiopia during a military junta as part of the Derg, then immediately began executing his political rivals. He basically began building up monuments to himself and dividing the country in to state run farms, very much like Stalin in the Ukraine. And like Ukraine, millions died of starvation. If you grew up Gen X, you remember the We Are the World concert to benefit starving people in Africa….? Yeah, this is the guy who was responsible for at least part of that starvation, and for stoking a civil war that killed millions more. When the Soviet Union collapsed, so did soviet support for Mengistu and he became the second dictator on this list to be overthrown by the people he purported to rule. He is still alive, however, 85 years old and living as a political refugee in Zimbabwe, despite having been found guilty in absentia of genocide of his own people.

So, minor details are different. This one died of old age, this one was shot by his people, that one was shot by himself. But the details of the cult of personality are the same. Gain power, typically through military overthrow of existing government, seize control of the media to silence dissent, surround yourself with toadies who will sing your praises to you and others, force compliance through decadent military parades and public speeches. Murder or force into labor anyone who disagrees with you, ESPECIALLY political rivals. Lather, rinse, repeat. Note, no place is safe. It’s entirely possible, if circumstances are just right, to install a dictator anywhere. Including the United States. Possibly ESPECIALLY in the United States. Because all it would take would be the right emergency, and the wrong congress to co-sign the bullshit, and we could slide into a dictatorship really fast. Both Obama and Trump were building this cult of personality, although both failed on controlling the media, thanks to the bizarroworld dichotomy of MSNBC and Fox news, at least providing contrast in opinion, if not unbiased facts.

This was an interesting read. It was a quick snapshot of key moments in a dictator’s life and the common threads that ran through each movement to create a Cult of Personality. Each of the dictators touched on has had extensive biographies written about them, so if you wanted to know more, it’s fairly easy to find dedicated books to each one in turn. But if you just want to know enough to seem smart on the topic in conversation, this is a quick guide to dictatorships in the 20th century. Not all inclusive. Remember at the beginning when I said there were over 100 in the 20th century alone? But this hits the top baddies, the ones with the highest body counts and most terror associated with their names.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on July 10, 2022, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.