On Felon 47 Being the New Pharoah Akhenaten

 On Felon 47 Being the New Pharaoh Akhenaten

It's easy to make parallels of trump to Hitler and other evil dictators of the modern world as many have, but what about the ancient world? There are plenty of terrible kings of old that he can be compared to, but perhaps the one most associated with extreme change opposed by their subjects is Akhenaten, an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh that ruled from roughly 1353 to 1336 or 1351 to 1334 BCE. Already you can tell what we know about the guy is fuzzy. Some of that was intentional on the part of the ancient Egyptians who were slightly less ancient than him.

Akhenaten is known for making quite a few changes in Egypt during his reign. He abandoned their traditional polytheism that was welcoming of lots of gods and instead forced a monotheistic worship of a god called Aten onto his people. He even changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, which meant "One Who is Effective for the Aten." Worshipers of other gods were persecuted under him. Archeological evidence shows the names and images of other gods were chiseled away from monuments.

There were other changes. He founded an entirely new capital. That is, he had an entirely new city called Amarna built at a site he personally chose so he could rule from it. History does not tell us how many golf courses it had. Other artifacts that suggest his poor rule include lots of letters from Egypt's allies requesting aid that went unanswered. The art styles of artifacts from his rule show a significant departure from the style of previous periods.

So what happened to Mr. Akhenaten and why can he be compared to some of history's worst villains and our current one? Normally it is quite difficult to judge the morality of someone from a different time and culture from which only scant archeological records remain. However, there is one more clue, and that's his legacy.

The Egyptian people returned to their polytheistic worship within a few years after his death. A young fellow named Tutankhamun, who you may have heard of, succeeded him and moved the capital back to Thebes. Amarna was abandoned. Akhenaten was removed from lists of Pharaohs by his successors for going against their traditional gods. Temples to Aten were destroyed and their stones were used for other works. Later records even refer to him as "the enemy" and his reign being "the time of the enemy of Akhenaten." They were so successful in destroying his legacy, that we didn't even know he existed until Napoleon's Egyptian expedition discovered Amarna.

So as we enter these dark times, it's worth looking to history to see what happens when leaders try to destroy the culture of their own people. While it may not always end well, there is precedent for them to be seen as villains by their subjects. Their reforms are rejected once they are gone from power. There are a lot of cultural and political battles that will need to be fought in the immediate future against the current regime that seeks to destroy the freedom of the American people. But it will eventually pass. The question is if we are willing to also fight for the legacy of such a regime to be a warning for future generations. Those who seek power only for their personal glory and not for the benefit of their people must be cast down along with their legacy. History will tell of them being the enemy of their people, and it should be written in stone.

For more info on historical figures, OSP is always my go-to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3IDB_KimCQ