The bishop found the perfect substitute for the peculiar requirements of negotiation with the Duke: the super-serviceable Giulio Alberoni, who had risen from poverty though a series of clerical appointments. However, diplomacy is the art of finding a way. Disgusted, the bishop refused to see him again. During the interview, he rose, turned his back to the bishop, and wiped himself. Vendôme welcomed one supplicant, a bishop on ambassadorial duty for the Duke of Parma, in his usual style. Upon rising the duke habitually took up his “chaise-persée” (a portable toilet), upon which he held court and received official visits for hours. His gossipy account of the Duke de Vendôme’s insolence includes a description of the duke’s morning routine. Saint-Simon’ Memoirs records an instance of truly astonishing sycophancy. Maybe a humanitarian concern.” Truckling to the boss doesn’t get much uglier than this. And if they put Jews into gas chambers in the Soviet Union, it is not an American concern. Kissinger had a ready response: “The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy. Nixon, intent on détente with the USSR, sought to avoid the request. Meir had implored Nixon to ask the Russian government to allow more Soviet Jews to emigrate to avoid persecution. One need only recall his deplorable comment to Nixon after a meeting with Golda Meir in 1973, then prime minister of Israel. The former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger showed great promise as sycophant from his earliest days as a graduate student at Harvard’s School of Government, where his fellow students, playing upon the “A” from his middle name, called him “Henry Ass Kissinger.” But in the Nixon administration, Kissinger became a world class sycophant. Quite the lesson that words should mean what they say. Once back on his feet, Caligula chose to take the man at his word and ordered his execution. Although Caligula did recover, the lickspittle’s tactic backfired spectacularly. The man made his vow publicly, hoping through his extravagant offer to show his deep loyalty and to elicit a generous award for his avowal. During an illness early in Caligula’s reign, a commoner vowed to give his own life if the emperor recovered. The power of the state can also be marshaled in less pervasive demonstrations, as an incident from the Roman Emperor Caligula’s notorious rule reminds us. Almost single-handedly, Goebbels created the prototype for subsequent versions of state-sponsored sycophancy. His letters are full of groveling praise - such as repeated testimonials that the experience of Hitler transformed his consciousness - and imagined scenes of glorious triumphs against various adversaries in which the Führer stands firm and unshakeable. He initiated the “Heil Hitler” salute and insisted on the use of “Der Führer” as title. Goebbels’ propagandizing began with his leader. For his combination of all the worst elements of sycophancy, and his persistence in carrying out his program of flattery, Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, would deserve first consideration.
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