Winner worship and the new kow-tow

In ancient China, everyone had to bow before the emperor, and ordinary citizens also had to ‘kow-tow’ to officials and magistrates: prostrating the body and touching the forehead to the ground. The kow-tow was an act of humiliation in front of power. It symbolized the relationship of the winners to the losers, the strong to the weak. Many assumed that the know-tow was a thing of the past, that we…