Thomas Hartwell/AP/Press Association Images. All rights reserved.Egyptians grew up learning at school that King Mena/Menes unified Lower and Upper Egypt to form a sole centralized kingdom. Although he died several millennia ago, his legacy hasn’t. His ideas, tools and ruling methods have been useful for Egypt’s rulers since.
History doesn’t seem to do anything else but repeat itself. In Egypt, authoritarian rulers have proven time and again that they share the same tactics, values and ideals as this pharaonic king. In my opinion, Mena’s drive to unify the country was to create an aura of personal glory. It was not necessarily motivated by the wellbeing of citizens in the newly unified Egypt. This made him a conqueror; he used power, arms and force to achieve personal ambitions.
Like most authoritarian rulers, he did not only look down on average citizens, but treated them as slaves, subjeted to his authority. Although this attitude produced a great deal of injustice, interestingly enough, the masses barely questioned the status quo.
