Word: despotism
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...Kinross is too responsible to speculate. He simply presents the available facts and sets them in a good light. Kemal Atatürk emerges as a political genius immingled with a moral moron, a man with the intellect of a Western liberal and the disposition of an Oriental despot, a loving father to his country all day long, but after sunset a dedicated lecher and incorrigible lush...
...Fifth Republic is really a benevolent despotism, the popularity of the despot has apparently soothed the conscience of the French people. Television is the most successful purveyor of the Gaullist cult, and the General uses it like a professional actor. He commands sympathy as skillfully as he commands votes...
...crabbed, crass perversion of Enlightenment philosophy that allowed no room for disagreement or human foible. Those who did not share that vision were packed off to the guillotine; some 17,000 were beheaded during the Terror. By equating Virtue with Terror, Robespierre set a comforting precedent for every subsequent despot from Stalin to Castro...
...despot, John Lithgow comes on weak. His voice is distinguished neither for its volume nor timbre on first hearing. Yet that voice proves wondrously appropriate for Utopia's dynamitable despotism; if the king commits any improprieties, the Public Exploder will blow...
Though the revolt was smashed, it caused Shishekly's downfall. Many army officers opposed the ruthlessness of the campaign and, within weeks, the garrison of Aleppo mutinied against "the despot Shishekly, stepson of imperialism." Not waiting to argue the point, Shishekly abandoned his wife and children in Damascus and fled across the Anti-Lebanon range in a snowstorm to the safety of Beirut. During the next few years he vainly plotted a return to power from Saudi Arabia and Switzerland...