• Strongman fans the flames of nationalism

• Parliament gets destroyed, leader subsequently rounds up political adversaries, crushing all who oppose him

• Tries to expand and centralize his power in any possible way

Sound Familiar?

More Literature and Politics

In the theme of French literature and politics, the Red and the Black is yet another anti Bourbon text, if not a very compelling one. The Red and the Black was published in 1830 by Stendhal, who was born merely 6 years before the French Revolution and grew up in an era seeing great men enjoy the meritocracy of the French Empire. His argument was that it was essentially impossible to rise in rank in the secular arm of the government, so for any chance at social ascension one had to rely on becoming a clergyman. This is because the monarchy was anti meritocratic, nepotistic, and being a monarchy, only allowed the higher ranks in the military and other secular occupations to the nobility. In the Red and the Black, the red represents the secular arm and the black is the clerical robes. As an aside, it isn’t unlikely Stendhal had at least minor role in the Second French Revolution that ultimately installed Louis-Napoleon III Bonaparte.

“Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you. I'd rather write about laughing than crying, for laughter makes men human, and courageous.”

-François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel

Richelieu’s Realpolitiks

Realpolitik is best described as a method of engaging in politiks heavily in favor of pragmatic decision making, and opposed to ideological tethering that might (and certainly held) hold significant sway over decision making. In modern times, perhaps the most recognizable realpolitiker (if that’s the demonym) was  Henry Kissinger. The official stance of the United States was to support democracies, but in order to curb communism in Chile, Kissinger staged a far right coup that installed Augusto Pinochet. That is Realpolitik. Interestingly, Henry Kissinger essentially compares himself to Cardinal Richelieu in his newest book “World Order” (yes, very ominous) and here I would like to explore that validity of that claim.

Cardinal Richelieu served in France during the crossroads of New World colonization, the French Wars of Religion, and the 30 Years War, which were extremely turbulent times for France. During the French Wars of Religion, he led the army to purge the Huguenot heresy from La Rochelle, and in the Three Musketeers was thought even to have assassinated the Duke of Buckingham (which Dumas probably did not even believe himself, but it was in essence the French opinion of him, that he was a conniver) who did lead a failed expedition to aid the Protestants. His more important contribution, and the one that most supports his adherence to some proto-realpolitik is his contribution to foreign affairs during the 30 Years War. If you’ll remember, France joined the Protestant league (unbelievable!) as a Catholic country to oppose the Habsburg Monarchy. He effectively turned this from a war originally about which religious denominations were eligible to be Holy Roman Emperor to a war of French nationalism against the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg supremacy! This would stretch Habsburg resources thin, and even though the war ended in a draw, the Habsburg monarchy was effectively bankrupt and spiraling into debt. Richelieu had succeeded immensely. So much so, it would be France that would dominate geopolitics under Louis XIV in the Spanish Lowlands and elsewhere for decades to come.

That is a Nice ass.

Relationship Between Crown and Church in France as Shown in Literature

The relationship between the French crown and the church has always been tenuous, as they were both institutions of great power that invariably tended towards overlapping and conflicting wills. This was chronicled (somewhat) in the historical fiction novel the Three Musketeers. In the Three Musketeers you see a power struggle between the Cardinal Richelieu and his Cardinal regiment, and the comparatively weak Louis XIII and his crown musketeers. Notice how Richelieu is considered the villain in this particular instance, this is part of a trend throughout French literature that positively portrays the secular arm and negatively depicts religious institutions.

Moliere is an example where religion is negatively depicted by a French playwright. In the play Tartuffe, Tartuffe is depicted as a hypocritical religious conniver who is ostensibly pious, but to the observant man simply too eager to demonstrate to others his religiosity. At the end he is revealed to have tried, through marriage, to scam someone out of his possessions only to be thwarted by a crown officer. Interestingly, the officer claims the king knows everything and sees all. The reason this play is so obviously political is because Louis XIV took great interest in using popular culture to influence the French people, and he saw the clergy had too much power in France in the past and sought to curb it.

This is the Arles Amphitheatre located in Southern France. Today, it’s used as a bullfighting ring, but after the fall of the empire it was converted into a fortress, oddly enough. The last time I was in Arles there was a blind guitarist with unbelievably long fingernails playing traditional southern French music. The food here is also fantastic.

Sacré-Cœur- The Sacré-Cœur is a Byzantine style cathedral that opened in 1914, the view in front of it is supposedly the best the city of Paris has to offer because according to my friend, “you can see everything in the city except the Sacré-Cœur!”

There are many West African immigrants that hawk their low quality wares there, bless their souls.

Comte de Rochefort/ Man from Meung is the biggest troll edgelord shitposter that Dumas has ever produced.