May 8, 2017

That's enough revolution for now.



ADDED: My post title is my own cheeky interpretation of Drudge's use of Napoleon to represent Macron. But what connections are people making, other than that Macron is young (39) as he takes office and so was Napoleon? Here's WaPo:
Not since Napoleon has anybody leapt to the top of French public life with such speed. Not since World War II has anybody won the French presidency without a political party and a parliamentary base....

He was, it is true, extraordinarily lucky (luck being the quality that Napoleon said he most preferred in his generals). He benefited both from the flameout of Socialist President François Hollande, who decided not even to contest the election, and from a surprise series of personal scandals that dragged down the center-right’s candidate, François Fillon.....
AND: My post title assumes it was Le Pen whose rise was revolutionary, but consider this from The Guardian:
The 39-year-old [Macron] has vowed to bring a youthful “revolution” to French politics but also to return to the historic tradition of a strong leader who can “embody the nation”. He believes that ever since King Louis XVI’s head was chopped off in the revolution, France has been constantly trying to compensate for the lack of a true leader figure who could personify France.
Doesn't that put him on the counter-revolutionary side?
Macron, a centrist political novice, who had never before run for election and until three years ago was unknown, believes he can fill the role of republican guide of the nation.

Macron’s first public gesture as president was to deliberately, solemnly make a long walk alone under spotlights across the Louvre’s Napoleon courtyard to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the European anthem. It was a carefully coordinated reference to the style of the late Socialist president François Mitterrand, who presented himself as a kind of republican, elected monarch.

Every new French leader wants to contrast the style of the president who went before. If the Socialist François Hollande – who was once Macron’s mentor – was a plodding “ordinary bloke” who described himself as “President Normal” and turned his own door handles at the Elysée instead of waiting for a butler, Macron wants to bring back what he styles as a lofty poise and distance.
But it seems (from this distance) that Le Pen was the contrast to Normal and that people chose more normal. Did they seek normal and get a lofty monarch?



I hadn't noticed before that the Ode to Joy was the European anthem. Is it odd for the new president to do his victory promenade to the anthem of Europe and not France?

Donald Trump did not walk out on election night to the sound of the U.S. national anthem, but of course the music was American. Do you remember what it was? It was not "I'm Proud to Be an American." Listen:



It's the soundtrack to the movie "Air Force One" (in which Harrison Ford played an action-movie-hero President of the United States). He left the stage to the sound of the Rolling Stone's "You Can't Always Get What You Want," which, I guess, was reaching out to those who were shocked and disappointed, though I'm sure many experienced the line "You can't always get what you want" as a taunt and rankled at "But if you try sometimes well you might find you get what you need." I can hear the anti-Trumpist crying This is not what we need.

By the way, Trump's use of the song did not prevent New York Magazine's David Marchese from ranking "You Can't Always Get What You Want" as #1 of all 373 Rolling Stones songs:
There’s formal wit (the boys’ choir and French-horn lines), Mick’s keen and clear-eyed lyrics (he hits on envy, hope, spite, cynicism), Keith’s foundational riffing, and the rhythm section’s subtly powerful groove.... Also, how perfectly Stones-y is it that the best the band says you can hope for is the possibility of getting what you want? “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” is more moving and deep than anything else from the band’s classic years, more ambitious than anything that came before, and more authentic and fluid than anything that would come after. When the tempo picks up, it’s sexy, too. Look, maybe “Gimme Shelter” was the band’s true peak, and that song lives in the darkness the Stones knew so well, knew better than any other band, but I’m putting this song at the top. It lets a little light in. Lord knows we need it.
And here are the lyrics to "Ode to Joy" (written by Friedrich Schiller) in case you want to think about how weird they are for a political anthem (but be aware that the lyrics were not adopted as the European anthem, only the music).

Joy, beautiful spark of the gods,
Daughter from Elysium,
We enter, drunk with fire,
Heavenly One, thy sanctuary!
Your magic joins again
What convention strictly divides;
All people become brothers,
Where your gentle wing abides.

Who has succeeded in the great attempt,
To be a friend's friend,
Whoever has won a lovely woman,
Add his to the jubilation!
Indeed, who calls even one soul
Theirs upon this world!
And whoever never managed, shall steal himself
Weeping away from this union.

All creatures drink of joy
At nature's breast.
Just and unjust
Alike taste of her gift;
She gave us kisses and the fruit of the vine,
A tried friend to the end.
[Even] the worm has been granted sensuality,
And the cherub stands before God!

Gladly, as His heavenly bodies fly
On their courses through the heavens,
Thus, brothers, you should run your race,
As a hero going to conquest.

You millions, I embrace you.
This kiss is for all the world!
Brothers, above the starry canopy
There must dwell a loving Father.
Do you fall in worship, you millions?
World, do you know your creator?
Seek him in the heavens;
Above the stars must He dwell.
Even the worm... that's my favorite part.

MORE: I thought I remembered enthusing over "Even the worm" before. With the "worms" tag, I was able to find this post from 2004, where, in fact, I'd attended a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and I didn't say much about it, but I extracted a short excerpt from the lyrics: "Even to the worm ecstasy is given, and the cherub stands before God."

Also, I see that the NYT columnist Roger Cohen has opined about Macron's music choice:
[Macron] won with a bold stand for the much-maligned European Union, and so reaffirmed the European idea and Europe’s place in a world that needs its strength and values.

This, after Britain’s dismal decision last year to leave the European Union, and in the face of Trump’s woeful anti-European ignorance, was critical. Macron underlined his message by coming out to address his supporters in Paris accompanied by the European anthem, Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” rather than the Marseillaise — a powerful gesture of openness.

84 comments:

Kate said...

Journalists are favorably comparing Macron to Napoleon? One of history's most vibrant and villainous leaders?

They *really were scared of Le Pen.

MayBee said...

I'm amused that nobody - nobody- was supporting LePen so she could shatter the glass ceiling. What happened to all the solidarity, ladies?

Also, it's interesting that France moved a little back to the center after Hollande, but nobody wants to talk about the failure of Hollande and his extreme socialism.

Caroline said...

What's up with the wedding ring on each hand? One wonders, given his enthusiasm for "the modern family in all its forms".

cacimbo said...

Macron wants to increase defense spending, increase the number of police, and the number of available prison slots. He calls for all 18-21 yr olds to serve a mandatory month in the military service. He plans to cut corporate taxes and wants to reduce the burdensome labor laws that make businesses reluctant to hire. In the US Macron would be a Republican. Lefty media is only celebrating his win because they were vehemently opposed to LaPen over immigration despite sharing her lefty economic policies. It is clear that for the international left/media "diversity" trumps economic or social policies.

MadisonMan said...

So, the man who was new to politics beat the woman who's been around for a while, and who has family links to a male politician of the same name.

Macron = Trump, or Macron = Obama? I'm not sure.

tim maguire said...

The stasis candidate gets the Napoleon tag? Journalists really are empty shells for pretty words to echo in, aren't they?

Anonymous said...

Oh dear Lord, what a load of crap. Yeah, upstart outsider from nowhere. Macron isn't the man on horseback, Macron's the guy who's there to forestall the man on horseback.

campy said...

Macron isn't Napoleon, Macron is the horse's derrière.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I guess the analogy makes perfect sense if you know absolutely nothing about Napoleon.

Macron is closer to Napoleon Dynamite than he is to Napoleon Bonaparte.

Anonymous said...

tim maguire: The stasis candidate gets the Napoleon tag? Journalists really are empty shells for pretty words to echo in, aren't they?

To be fair, they probably don't know anywhere near enough history to be able to make apt analogies.

I guess we should grateful that they've at least heard of Napoleon.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, exiled, posts crossing in the mail. Didn't mean to parrot you.

BillyTalley said...

Then there is the strange tale of his marriage to a woman 30 years his senior when he was 16 and a classmate of her own children at the time. But this alone is unremarkable. What is remarkable given the famously -lassaize faire- cultural context, is that they are still together after all these years, faithful and monogamous.

Anonymous said...

Ha, ha, ha. France has elected its own Barack Obama. This should turn out well.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Now can we see what was in the hacked material?

Tim said...

Yay! More Islam!

Meade said...

Sacred love of the Fatherland,
Lead, support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished Liberty,
Fight with thy defenders!
Fight with thy defenders!
Under our flags, may victory
Hurry to thy manly accents,
May thy expiring enemies,
and even their worms,
See thy triumph and our glory!

Bay Area Guy said...

Macron is much more of an empty suit, than anything else.

Here's my standard for him: if there is more than 1 terroristic attack in France, per year, then he is a failure.

If less, then maybe he's lucky or doing something right.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

Best take on "You Can't Always Get What You Want">" by (another) cartooning Scott.

Rick.T. said...

"Macron’s first public gesture as president was to deliberately, solemnly make a long walk alone under spotlights across the Louvre’s Napoleon courtyard to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the European anthem."

As opposed to the third symphony (Eroica):

"By late 1803, Beethoven had sketched out his new epic symphony, the Eroica. It was inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution and dedicated to its hero, who then seemed to be the great liberator of the people: Napoleon.

Beethoven thought of himself as a free spirit, and he admired the principles of freedom and equality embodied by the French Revolution. He thought he recognized in Napoleon a hero of the people and a champion of freedom, which was why he intended to dedicate a huge new symphony to him.

But when Beethoven heard the news in late 1804 that Napoleon had crowned himself Emperor of France, he was disgusted. “He’s just a rascal like all the others,” he exclaimed.

Beethoven violently erased Napoleon’s name from his manuscript—so forcefully, in fact, that he erased his way right through the paper, leaving holes in the title page.

So this revolutionary piece of music that was originally to be The Bonaparte Symphony became simply Eroica—the heroic."

http://www.pbs.org/keepingscore/beethoven-eroica.html

Danno said...

I like the Stones, way more than the Beatles, and agree it is remarkable that they are still around after all these years. I however, would never pay the money they extract to see their concerts, and I have no interest in watching what will likely be their "Wheelchair Tour".

As for the songs, I like "She's So Cold". (Yeah, like an ice cream one!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo34VhfcetU

No opinion on the politics of the cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

narciso said...

What actually happened;

https://pjmedia.com/election/2017/05/07/what-happened-in-france/

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Like Obama and Justin Trudeau before him, Macron will be the willing tool of the establishment that put him in office. The public decidedly does not want to know how sausage is made. An attractive personality will keep them from thinking about all the fillers and pig rectums contained in what they're being fed.

William said...

The more I know about French political leaders, the less I want to know. Anyway, he's young and good looking. That's very important in a leader.......We used to have the axis of pretty in this hemisphere. Trudeau, Obama, and Nieto. Was the world ever blessed with three better looking leaders all in a row?. But then Trump came along and ruined the symmetry........If LePen had won, we would have had Merkel, LePen, and May. There would have been a kind of symmetry to that arrangement. Perhaps the French voted for Macron to escape the matriarchy.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Well, let's see: Macron is young. Napoleon was young when he took power. Macron is married to an older, previously married woman. So was Boney (Josephine was 6 years older than Napoleon.)
Like Napoleon, Macron has dark brown hair.

That's about it as far as similarities. All of them are superficial. Napoleon was the ultimate French nationalist who tried to build a French empire. Macron will, as LePen noted, be Merkel's lapdog.

I guess Macron is good looking if you like that low T Justin Trudeau pretty boy metrosexual look.

Bob Ellison said...

The greatest Stones song is "Sympathy for the Devil".

F said...

"Gotterfunken." Only in German.

Danno said...

Exiled said..."I guess Macron is good looking if you like that low T Justin Trudeau pretty boy metrosexual look."

Nailed it!!

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Bob Ellison said...
The greatest Stones song is "Sympathy for the Devil".

I agree. Followed closely by "Paint It Black" and "Jumping Jack Flash."
"

Sebastian said...

"Macron’s first public gesture as president was to deliberately, solemnly make a long walk alone under spotlights across the Louvre’s Napoleon courtyard to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, the European anthem. It was a carefully coordinated reference to the style of the late Socialist president François Mitterrand." Yeah, nothing says "centrist" like imitating Mitterand.

Curious George said...

"Is it odd for the new president to do his victory promenade to the anthem of Europe and not France?"

Dunno. But enjoy. Pretty soon the Anthem to Europe will be this.

Static Ping said...

True story: Yesterday I was out for a walk and encountered a woman walking her dog. This was the first time I recall meeting her. Out of the blue she asked if I was excited about Macron's victory. She wasn't French. This was New Jersey.

Apparently the Left is very invested in this outcome. On the plus side the dog was cute.

As to what the future holds, my hope is France will survive as a French country with all the annoyance that entails. At the moment, the most likely future path will be a major conflict with their unassimilated Muslim population of which all results are bad and some are truly horrifying. Le Pen wanted to do something about that before it was too late. If Macron can make some progress in producing a better future I wish him the best, but at the moment he seems like a strange man without a party who is in denial about the danger, just the sort of person the establishment likes when they don't want to be bothered about "overblown" reports of the barbarians outside the gates. Historically, sometimes the establishment only realizes the danger when it is far too late.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Pretty soon the Anthem to Europe will be this.

5/8/17, 8:54 AM

According to Obama, that's the most beautiful sound in the world!

Static Ping said...

And I agree that "Sympathy of the Devil" is the best Stones song. But the Beatles are better.

Churchy LaFemme: said...

"Sympathy" starts out strong but goes nowhere lyrically. It's fairly late Stones, but "Beast of Burden" & "She's So Cold" are in the running for the top over "Sympathy".

I was amused that the BBC went gaga over a Stones 50th anniversary show farily recently, acting like this one show was something amazing. The Beach Boys had just done an epic 50th Anniversary *tour* on the back of a great new album.

Bob Boyd said...

Sexy Worms

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgRDJYqLTaM

Static Ping said...

I suppose I should point out the obvious: it is very unhealthy for the largest city and capital to be monolithic in its voting patterns. We have a similar problem in the United States but Washington is not that large of a city by our standards and New York City is not even that monolithic.

Balfegor said...

Marseillaise isn't terrible, but if your tastes run to the grandiose, it simply can't compare to Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Probably the only national anthem that could compare is the Soviet Union's.

tcrosse said...

If you want grandiose, try Liszt's Les Preludes. There's a passage that was used for Ming's Throne Room in the Flash Gordon movies, and Nazi newsreels about the Eastern Front. Get sone styrofoam columns and you're all set.

Chuck said...

"You Can't Always Get What You Want" wasn't just a celebratory song for Trump's electoral victories; it was his rally-closing tune from nearly the beginning, and was being used even before he had any really significant electoral victories.

I've never seen any good reporting/interviews on why that song was chosen. I think it is a great song, and I am one of those boomers who think that the Stones albums from that period (Beggar's Banquet, Sticky Fingers, Let It Bleed, Exile on Main Street) were among the best in the history of rock.

But it was a mystery to me why Team Trump chose it. One of a whole lot of mysteries with Trump.

Michael K said...

Like Obama and Justin Trudeau before him, Macron will be the willing tool of the establishment that put him in office.

Yes but I wonder what they want ? Besides the EU which all European politicians want a job on its Parliament.

Tim said...

Stones best = Beast of Burden and Mother's Little Helper

Craig Howard said...

Is it odd for the new president to do his victory promenade to the anthem of Europe and not France?

Yes, it is odd -- and telling.

I wonder if Bernie would have had the Internationale playing.

Chuck said...

I can't remember the Drudge home-page ever appearing so butt-hurt over an election result, as with the French election.


Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck: "I can't remember the Drudge home-page ever appearing so butt-hurt over an election result, as with the French election."

Projection.

It ain't very pretty.

Drago said...

"lifelong republican" Chuck: "I've never seen any good reporting/interviews on why that song was chosen."

LOL

rcocean said...

Paris used to vote Communist in the 30s-60s, now it votes for the globalist/open borders guy. France has decided to shut its eyes to the Muslim problem and gamble it will all work out some how.

Fernandinande said...

exiledonmainstreet said...
I guess the analogy makes perfect sense if you know absolutely nothing about Napoleon.


Uh, they're both French. Right?

Macron is closer to Napoleon Dynamite than he is to Napoleon Bonaparte.

So you claim those are two different people? Any photos of them together in the same place?

I thought not.

robother said...

The Ode to Joy celebrating the brotherhood of man is in German. As Le Pen said, France has chosen a woman leader after all--Merkel.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Europe has spoken. They reject far the right ideology and populism. First Austria, then the Netherlands, now France, Germany next. Ode to Joy was apropos, Macron is not a nationalist, he's in favor of the EU and globalism, so why not?

MadisonMan said...

Uh, they're both French. Right?

Wasn't Napoleon from Corsica? (European History was decades ago, FWIW).

buwaya said...

Napoleon was very different in large part because he rose as a consequence of winning military victories, besides being well connected. He walked into Paris the hero if the hour after a couple of brilliant campaigns won after the Republican fortunes had fallen low. Everything about that situation, also, was completely open, the why and the how.

Macron was simply well connected, why and how is not exactly clear, other than to, maybe, the Rothschild interest. There is no record of political victory or administrative achievement. He was also tremendously well funded for such an "upstart". The why and the how are rather obscure. A perfect object for conspiracy theories, because there is indeed a conspiracy here, decisions made behind closed doors, unknown by whom and for what purpose. And of course there is the unanimity of the media and the organs of the state behind him. Much like Obama, but moreso.

Luke Lea said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Luke Lea said...

A prediction: Just as Woodrow Wilson ran on a platform of staying out of WWI, as FDR promised a balanced budget and then launched the New Deal, and as George W. Bush promised no nation building and then invaded Iraq, I won't be surprised if Macron in the end decides to pursue Le Pen's agenda. He will reason that the forces propelling the rise of popular nationalism are inexorably increasing and will not be denied; therefore, better him than Le Pen.

Meade said...

"Wasn't Napoleon from Corsica?"

Bonaparte was born on Corsica the same year Corsica was conquered by France. (We have been studying the French Revolution here at Meadhouse.)

buwaya said...

The Bonapartes were ethnic Italians from Genoa, settled in Corsica. The family at one time backed Corsican independence from France.

France even then was multi-ethnic and also open to foreign talent. The old regime would readily appoint talented outsiders to its most powerful positions. The celebrated Marshal Saxe, an illegitimate son of Augustus the Strong of Saxony, was given supreme command under Louis XV.
Then there was Jaques Necker the Swiss, who was Louis XVI's Minister of Finance and Prime Minister (the titles were different of course).

You see this over and over in European history.

Fernandinande said...

MadisonMan said...
Wasn't Napoleon from Corsica?


That would explain the dwarfism.

Meade said...

"[Bonaparte]wrote to Corsican leader Pasquale Paoli in May 1789, 'As the nation [Corsica] was perishing I was born. Thirty thousand Frenchmen were vomited on to our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in waves of blood. Such was the odious sight which was the first to strike me.'"

Lovernios said...

My favorite Stones tunes are "Monkey Man" and "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'"

The instrumental half of "Can't You Hear Me Knockin'" is rocking with a very funky Sax. The band showing their musicality.

tcrosse said...

Napoleon was born Napoleone di Buonaparte, not exactly a French name.

William said...

From a distance of two centuries the shabbiness of Napoleon is far more glaring than the grandeur. Self aggrandizement was his one overriding purpose and ideal, but that's not the most depressing thing about him. Men like Beethoven, Goethe, Byron, Kant, and Heine are not generally considered shabby or second rate, but they were his ardent supporters. It says something sad about the human spirit that someone like Napoleon could inspire the Eroica Symphony.

WiseAssLatino said...

"Tumbling Dice" from Exile on Main Sreet is the Stones best song, dense, propulsive, soulful, with an irresistible elastic groove. The album is part of my Holy Trinity of Classic Rock along side "Astral Weeks" by Van Morrison and "Blood on the Tracks" by Dylan.

mockturtle said...

Luke Lea opines: I won't be surprised if Macron in the end decides to pursue Le Pen's agenda. He will reason that the forces propelling the rise of popular nationalism are inexorably increasing and will not be denied; therefore, better him than Le Pen.

I hope you are right. If not, then France has signed its own death warrant.

Anonymous said...

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/french-annoyingly-retain-right-to-claim-intellectual-superiority-over-americans

"PARIS (The Borowitz Report)—On Sunday, the people of France annoyingly retained their traditional right to claim intellectual superiority over Americans, as millions of French citizens paused to enjoy just how much smarter they were than their allies across the Atlantic.

In bars and cafés across France, voters breathed a sigh of relief in the knowledge that arrogantly comparing themselves to the U.S. population, a longtime favorite pastime of the French people, would remain viable for the foreseeable future.

Pierre Grimange, a Parisian café-goer, sipped on a glass of Bordeaux and toasted his nation “for not being so dumb as the United States after all.”

“A lot was at stake today: the future of our liberal traditions and our democracy itself,” he said. “But by far the greatest loss of all would have been our right to look down on Americans.”

“Grâce à Dieu, that has been secured!” Grimange exclaimed.

But, sitting a few tables away, Helene Commonceau, another Parisian, admitted that she did not understand what all of the celebrating was about. “We are smarter than the Americans, true, but they have set the bar very low, no?” she said."

Michael K said...

Inga can't help herself. The disdain and feelings of superiority are so much a part of the left.

90% of Paris voted for the Trudeau type. DC votes the same way except it was Hillary.

I love France but, as I have seen quoted more than once, "Yes we French have a Silicon Valley but it is in the Thames Estuary."

Do you even understand what that means ?

buwaya said...

"From a distance of two centuries the shabbiness of Napoleon is far more glaring than the grandeur."

The judgment of history through contemporary lenses. And also because Napoleons feet of clay are far more visible to us, as nearly everything about him is so well documented. There are libraries full of Napoleonic official archives from many countries, memoirs by, it seems, every last person that ever spoke to him, or who may have spoken to anyone who had. And his enemies eventually published more than his friends.

We know Napoleon enormously better than we do Charlemagne or Justinian or Caesar. Their own feet of clay are not quite as well known, as few of their enemies got quite as universal a following.

We can judge him shabby, perhaps, because his contemporaries, whom we don't examine quite as intensely, were not much, if at all, better by our standards. Personally I find him more evil than most of his time simply as a matter of scale. He had control of more lives and wasted them abominably on his fears and ambitions. But his contemporaries were, mostly, not different in kind, they simply did less of it.

As for the appeal of the Napoleonic, it is useful to read what was written at the time, or through the 19th century anyway. There was a real nostalgia for Napoleon as a man who had turned the world upside down, in a world that many thought needed turning over. Stendhal, who served under Napoleon, is a perceptive critic. "The Red and the Black" and "The Charterhouse of Parma" are both much occupied by the glamour and mystique and nostalgia of the Napoleonic moment. A much worse but very influential book, Eugene Sue's "Wandering Jew", has a strong theme of unmitigated Napoleonic nostalgia. And of course Victor Hugo in "Les Miserables" has much of the same, and an apologetic if inaccurate digression on Waterloo.

mockturtle said...

Buwaya, I could not agree more. I try to read contemporaneous accounts of history whenever possible. Great men and great events filtered through the lens of centuries and changing values tend to lose their essence.

Unknown said...

Just like to point out Trump's music selection election night would more correctly be called "Fanfare For The Common Man" instead of the soundtrack for the movie "Air Force One". Considering his often repeated before (and since) forgotten man (and woman) themes, Fanfare is way more likely what was in the campaign's music selection and not Harrison Ford.

Static Ping said...

Pierre Grimange, a Parisian café-goer, sipped on a glass of Bordeaux and toasted his nation “for not being so dumb as the United States after all.”

No one is more confident than those that do not realize they are in danger.

Here's hoping Pierre is right. I doubt it.

Balfegor said...

Re: William:

From a distance of two centuries the shabbiness of Napoleon is far more glaring than the grandeur. Self aggrandizement was his one overriding purpose and ideal, but that's not the most depressing thing about him. Men like Beethoven, Goethe, Byron, Kant, and Heine are not generally considered shabby or second rate, but they were his ardent supporters. It says something sad about the human spirit that someone like Napoleon could inspire the Eroica Symphony.

One really shouldn't be looking to artists for moral leadership. Set aside artists' and intellectuals' support for the Corsican Ogre -- you have only to look at the 20th century to see how artists fell for Fascism and Communism (or both) to realise that artistic talent and vision have, if anything, an inverse relationship with moral sensibility.

Balfegor said...

Re: buwaya:

We know Napoleon enormously better than we do Charlemagne or Justinian or Caesar. Their own feet of clay are not quite as well known, as few of their enemies got quite as universal a following.

Well, they won, and Napoleon did not. Even so, we all know how Justinian was a sleepless shapeshifting demon who married a wanton prostitute, thanks to Procopius's Secret History, so I'd say his enemies got their blows in:

For reference, shapeshifting demon is chapter 12, Theodora's sexual history is chapter 9.

furious_a said...

Angela Merkel is the first German woman to win a French presidential election.

Félicitations!

furious_a said...

On Sunday, the people of France annoyingly retained their traditional right to claim intellectual superiority over Americans

Why are French roads lined with trees?

So the U.S. Army can liberate Paris in the shade.

furious_a said...

the European anthem = "Deutschland uber Alles".

The unelected deskwarmers in Brussels might as well have chosen Das Horst-Wessel Lied.

tcrosse said...

The French were at least smart enough not to allow such an unspeakable highbinder as Hillary Clinton to run as a major party candidate.

gadfly said...

So Drudge's uses Napoleon to represent Macron,which makes a certain amount of sense since Napoleon as 39 when he was put in charge as is Macron.

Then there is the short man syndrome. Napoleon was 5'6" and Macron is 5'8" in height.

Short man syndrome is an informal term and not a medical or psychological condition and goes by other names such as 'Napoleon complex'. Technically it is a form of inferiority complex in which the person attempts to overcompensate for their perceived shortcoming.

On the other hand, Emmanuel Macron married his teacher who is 25 years his senior in age. He was only 15 when their relationship developed. For the election campaign, however, Macron has not been wearing his nose ring.

Joe said...

The projection of American conservatives on French politics is bizarre. It seems to circle around Le Pen promising a Frexit Referendum*, ignoring everything else about her. Are conservatives aware she is arguably more socialist than Macron? Further, Le Pen is a life long politician who hasn't accomplished anything.

Finally, while the President of France has a remarkable amount of power, they aren't dictator and still have to persuade voters and the parliament. Why assume a Le Pen victory would magically make that happen?

(*Assuming a Frexit referendum is held, will it pass? Strategically, is now the time even to push it?)

Anonymous said...

Joe: Are conservatives aware she is arguably more socialist than Macron?

Yes. That Le Pen is a socialist and not an American-style conservative has been discussed here many times. As have the liberal (aka non-socialist) economic reforms Macron has proposed.

You can now re-evaluate and correct the rest of your own projections and assumptions about what "conservatives" around here think based on this new information.

You're welcome.

Joe said...

@Angel-Dyne

This has nothing to do with guessing what people think, but what they are actually writing here AND on other conservative blogs. What that writing shows is a profound ignorance of anything of substance about Le Pen. Any suggestion otherwise is quickly dismissed if not "shouted down".

Further, some recent outside articles show a remarkable detachment from reality--that because Le Pen positioned herself as a populist, ergo she must be just like Trump, ergo the French populace rejected populism. Is it not possible that the French voters simply disliked and rejected Le Pen herself?

buwaya said...

"The projection of American conservatives on French politics is bizarre"

Its not. Its mainly the enemy of my enemy policy at work. And ideology, i.e., socialism, is only one item on the list of issues.
And Le Pen shared many enemies/issues with US populists -

The international finance-capital coalition back Macron and oppose Brexit.
Muslims. Le Pen opposes, Macron favors.
Immigration. Le Pen opposes, Macron favors.
Cultural erasure. Le Pen is nativist, Macron is pro-erasure.

Steven said...

Macron entering to the EU anthem isn't odd at all. The EU is the admission by France and Germany that a thousand years of trying proved neither of them can unilaterally dominate Europe, and thus they have to pursue their dreams of hegemony together.

Thus why they can't consider letting Britain stay in the Single Market; economic integration does not exist for its own sake, but to create a united, restored Frankenreich.

And the enemy of this empire? The United States, of course. It's why just today, Macron declared that outside the EU, the UK would have to suffer the fate of "realignment and submission to the US".

Le Pen is a patriotic throwback to when France dreamed it could be the great power in Europe, and in that matter is the heir to Napoleon, nor Macron. Macron is the heir of the Vichy regime, which admitted France could not rule the continent but imagined it could be partners with Germany in one after it purged the weakness of democracy. (Did you think the EU's "democratic deficit" was an accident?)

Michael K said...

What that writing shows is a profound ignorance of anything of substance about Le Pen. Any suggestion otherwise is quickly dismissed if not "shouted down".

I disagree completely. The principle problem facing France today is not Socialism but the unassimilated Muslim minority that makes parts of Paris "no go" zones. Socialism is a policy error that could be corrected as Israel corrected it.

What France faces from the Muslims is disaster and national suicide. Britain is a decade behind France there but I fear both will go down.

Kirk Parker said...

Static Ping,

Yes, although France has plenty of barbarians already inside the gates.



And re the Stones: what, no votes for "Under My Thumb"?