Not since North Korean media declared Kim Jong-il to be the reincarnation of Kim Il Sung has there been such a blatant attempt to create a necrocracy, or perhaps mausolocracy, in which a living claimant assumes the fleshly mantle of the departed.

Christopher Hitchens
About This Quote

A mausolocracy is a type of state in which a leader is surrounded by monuments and statues. The term is derived from the location of the tombs of the Assyrian kings, where they were surrounded by statues and other symbols of their power. The word mausoleum comes from the Latin word for “palace” or “tomb.”

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More Quotes By Christopher Hitchens
  1. What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence.

  2. About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one...

  3. I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim–so modestly and so humbly–to possess. It is time to withdraw our...

  4. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him will believeth in anything. - Hitchens 3:16

  5. My own opinion is enough for me, and I claim the right to have it defended against any consensus, any majority, anywhere, any place, any time. And anyone who disagrees with this can pick a number, get in line, and kiss my ass.

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