By Henri van Nispen Caligula is clearly a case of imperial madness and hardly suitable for serious reflection upon today’s problems. I care to differ. It is a set phrase to say that every historian reflects his own interests as well as those of the Zeitgeist. Pondering the ruler of his day, the German medievalist …
By Martijn Icks Our Devil, who doth in Brussels dwell Cursed be thy name in heaven and in hell These words are not the battle cry of a zealous Brexiteer. They were written over four centuries ago in a Dutch pamphlet, denouncing a Brussels-based power with far more sinister intentions than the European Union. …
By Martijn Icks Ravenna is among Italy’s hidden gems. Boasting no less than eight UNESCO World Heritage sites, its rich history as a residence of late antique Roman emperors, Ostrogothic kings and Byzantine governors is everywhere to be seen. Yet where the streets of Venice, Rome and Florence are crowded with tourists as soon as …
By Martijn Icks When did character assassination originate? The question is impossible to answer. We can safely bet that the art of defamation is as old as human civilization itself, if not actually older. Even in prehistoric times, it’s all too easy to imagine some ambitious caveman spreading nasty tales about a rival for a …
Continue reading The Ancient Roots of Character Assassination
By Martijn Icks Social media have made public shaming all too easy. With great frequency, cries of moral indignation resound on the Internet, aimed at persons who have allegedly misbehaved or uttered disgraceful statements. These people suddenly find themselves beleaguered by digital torch-and-pitchfork mobs, ready to slaughter their good name. They are lambasted in furious …
Continue reading Shame on You: Public Humiliation as Punishment
Fairfax, VA – George Mason University’s Character Assassination and Reputation Politics (CARP) Research Lab hosts its second international conference “Character Assassination and Populism: Challenges and Responses” on March 15-17, 2019. One primary characteristic of today’s global society is the growing public distrust in traditional authorities. In the context of institutional legitimacy crisis, there is a great demand for …
Continue reading CARP 2019 Conference “Character Assassination and Populism”
By Martijn Icks Read – How there was a ghastly trial once Of a dead man by a live man, and both, Popes (Robert Browning, The Ring and the Book) The history of the papacy is long, bloody and at times outright bizarre. Yet even in its nearly 2,000 years of murder, intrigue and …
Continue reading Judging the Dead: The Revolting Case of the Cadaver Synod
By Martijn Icks Few names in history hold as much terror as that of Vlad Dracula, “Little Dragon”, also known as Vlad the Impaler. Many people are aware that the blood-curdling stories about the man’s cruelties inspired the Victorian novelist Bram Stoker to name his vampiric creation Count Dracula. What is much less well known …
By Martijn Icks The line between good-hearted humour and debasing ridicule is notoriously hard to draw. A few weeks ago, Sergei Samoilenko blogged about the growing influence of TV comedians in shaping public perceptions of politicians and celebrities. While some of their jokes and sketches may just be gently poking fun at public figures, comedians …
Continue reading Head in the Clouds: The Ridicule of Socrates in Classical Athens
By Martijn Icks and Rudmer Bijlsma At first glance, the Jewish-Dutch philosopher Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677) seems an unlikely target for character assassination. The man, characterized as “the noblest and most lovable of the great philosophers” by Bertrand Russell, shunned the spotlight and lived in relative obscurity in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. He moved from …
