Throughout history there have been names so disliked, distrusted, afeared, distained, that their very mention would result in behaviors bordering upon revulsion. Such was the distaste that those obliged to voice the unfortunate epithet would immediately spit upon the ground for fear of either vomiting or suffering outrageously bad karma simply from the repetition of the cursed word.
The habit was particularly followed of mentioning Satan, the devil, or those of extremely opposing and unpalatable views, to one’s own, for example a
pope to the virulent anabaptist, an anarchist to czar Nicholas, Benedict Arnold to an American revolutionary. Recent times have seen an abandonment of this phenomena, quite probably because as highly civilized beings we are inclined to consider ourselves superior to such base public displays of displeasure or possible misfortune.
Today I found myself quite comfortably reinvesting in the tradition. Certain patronym still prove utterly worthy renunciation.
Daily Abstract Thoughts 