Vengeance Leader
Some leaders make it their mission to "get even" with anyone who ever crossed them. History has a name for how that ends.
The Sulla Proscription
When a so-called leader announces they intend to get even with everyone who ever "crossed him" or failed to show loyalty, it's worth knowing about the Roman dictator Sulla.
If Sulla greeted someone while walking around, that person was allowed to live. Anyone he didn't greet was killed on the spot by his guard.
Eventually, terrified senators pleaded with him: if people were going to die at random, could he at least publish a list, so they'd know who was safe? Sulla agreed — and made a new list every single day. He also told wealthy Romans he'd spare them if they named him in their wills. He had many of them killed anyway; it just made the estate easier to collect.
Vengeance leaders don't act alone. They need loyal followers, enablers, and accomplices willing to carry out the campaign against the "enemies within" — a category that has a way of expanding to include millions of people.
Molière and the Gullible Crowd
Molière, the famous French playwright, was struck by how easily crowds could be talked into believing an obvious con. His response was Tartuffe — a comedy about a fraud who manipulates a household through false piety. The play gave us the term Tartuffery: performed virtue used as a tool of manipulation.
The Sales Job
Getting into power sometimes just takes a good sales job. Classic sales training pushes a simple rule: if you didn't close the deal, you didn't use the right words — try again with better ones. One common technique is the "Wouldn't It Be Nice" method: paint a picture so appealing that the customer stops asking how it actually gets delivered.
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"Wouldn't it be nice to cut fuel prices by 50% or more?"
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"Wouldn't it be nice to make food much cheaper, starting right away?"
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"Wouldn't it be nice to be rid of the enemies — foreign and domestic — causing all our troubles?"
None of these promises make it into anything resembling a written contract. That's not an accident — it's the whole method. See also: sleazy sales techniques, and the recurring question of why this kind of appeal keeps working.
Creating the Drama
Vengeance leaders often manufacture a crisis to justify extreme measures against the "enemies within" — a page taken straight from Hitler's Enabling Act, which used a manufactured emergency to legally dissolve the checks on his power.
When a vengeance leader faces losing power, some resort to violence to keep it. In the worst historical case, that meant a "scorched earth" policy — Hitler's actual plan to punish and destroy Germany itself as a consequence of its failure to win.
Vengeance Leader prevention can save many lives.
Recognizing the pattern early is the whole point. Could you help?