Aztec Kings Had Rules for Plagues, Including ‘Do Not Be a Fool’ | Hacker News Reader

Aztec Kings Had Rules for Plagues, Including ‘Do Not Be a Fool’

zocalopublicsquare.org

104 pointssmacktoward20 comments

> Do not be a fool. Do not rush your words, do not interrupt or confuse people. Instead find, grasp, arrive at the truth. Make no one weep. Cause no sadness. Injure no one. Do not show rage or frighten folks. Do not create a scandal or speak with vanity. Do not ridicule. For vain words and mockery are no longer your office. Never, of your own will, make yourself less, diminished. Bring no scorn upon the nation, its leadership, the government.

Retract your teeth and claws. Gladden your people. Unite them, humor them, please them. Make your nation happy. Help each find their proper place. That way you’ll be esteemed, renowned. And when our Lord extinguishes you, the old ones will weep and sigh.

Good advice, someone in the oval office should read it :)

Everyone in politics needs to. Democratically elected politicians have been reduced to TV personalities. These virtues affect likeability.

The advice may sound good, but it clearly did not work.

Jesus f*cking christ this is a brutal comment

True, smallpox pretty much decimated the Aztec civilization.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/how-smallpox-devastated...

Ultimately they would need a genius doctor, as until 17th century even in Europe the correct tracing and containment measures were unknown.

They did not have time for one to appear.

A tweet that hit hard recently from patio11: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1258224216156954624

> A gut punch of a paragraph in a 2010 vintage fantasy novel re: plague response:

> They were intelligently planned procedures, quickly and efficiently carried out, by men who knew what they were doing. They'd never worked in the past, and this time was no exception.

But our plague response looked nothing like that. Our plague response looked like Chernobyl.

Well, the quote is that the plan, competently carried out, STILL didn't work, and had never worked in the past.

I think this is relevant. "If a king did not follow this advice, if his rule caused more suffering than it abated, then the people prayed to Tezcatlipoca for any number of consequences, including his death:

May he be made an example of. Let him receive some reprimand, whatever you choose. Perhaps punishment. Disease. Perhaps you’ll let your honor and glory fall to another of your friends, those who weep in sorrow now. For they do exist. They live. You have no want of friends. They are sighing before you, humble. Choose one of them.

Perhaps he [the bad ruler] will experience what the common folk do: suffering, anguish, lack of food and clothing. And perhaps you will give him the greatest punishments: paralysis, blindness, rotting infection.

Or will he instead soon depart this world? Will you bring about his death? Will he get to know our future home, the place with no exits, no smoke holes? Maybe he will meet the Lord of Death, Mictlanteuctli, mother and father of us all.

Clearly, the Aztecs took the responsibilities of leadership very seriously".

Perfect advice to create a conservative society afraid of any change or new idea.

Good luck challenging the status quo without "confusing" or "frighten" people, or "creating a scandal".

It's horrible advice! It sets a standard that cannot possibly be met, not without defining some "other" class and methodically and persistently crushing them.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com