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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 19, 2024

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You seem to be under the strange impression that these things, Napoleon, the Ancien Régime, la fille aînée de l'Eglise, that these are somehow separate from the Republic and the Nation, that these achievements, good and bad, are not part of an unbroken through-line that is entirely recognized as our patrimony.

Napoléon c'est la France, Robespierre c'est la France, Louis c'est la France, Gambetta c'est la France, Maurras c'est la France, la Commune c'est la France.

One can deplore the sorry state of our country and how much we have erred over the centuries or in recent times, but even the ultra-mecha-final-form far-right would immediately detect a silly American infiltrator in one that would deny this proposition. The best you'll get is people saying the continuation of the ethnic French stock is necessary for the continuation of the French culture, and I don't even disagree with this, but no self respecting Frenchman would deny Alexandre Dumas nationhood.

And to get back to the original point, I don't think we should take lessons on solutions from people who haven't solved the problem either.

You seem to be under the strange impression that these things, Napoleon, the Ancien Régime, la fille aînée de l'Eglise, that these are somehow separate from the Republic and the Nation

They necessarily are, considering the Republic and the Nation came much later and are killing these other things.

Napoléon c'est la France, Robespierre c'est la France, Louis c'est la France, Gambetta c'est la France, Maurras c'est la France, la Commune c'est la France.

Not really. Why not add the soccer team to that? Or Vichy? Or Algeria? Somehow Vichy which gave current France its retirement system is not 'la France'. Nicely played!

You can't have both absolute monarchy and republic at the same time, for example.

If you're going to include everything and anything into your patriotism, why restrict yourself to some arbitrary borders from a thousand years ago or so? At least the early French saw themselves as people of God, in communion with a greater Christian community, from Rome to Byzantium.

The best you'll get is people saying the continuation of the ethnic French stock is necessary for the continuation of the French culture, and I don't even disagree with this

Why are you so triumphant about a culture that is sterilizing that very people then?

but no self respecting Frenchman would deny Alexandre Dumas nationhood.

Do you include the millions of Frenchmen that lived and died before Alexandre Dumas ever wrote a word?

Somehow Vichy which gave current France its retirement system

You can add traffic laws, identity cards, national police and a whole lot of other things.

But I thought it went without saying that those are part of it as well. Pétain c'est aussi la France. Though our claim to Algeria is, as you know, a bit more complicated because of the multinational nature of Empire.

Why are you so triumphant

I wouldn't say I am. But you don't really get to pick your culture, ironically. I am what I am and if that leads me to oblivion, so be it. I couldn't bear to be anything else.

I still think there is hope we can deal with this problem. And frankly I think we already would have if the American thumb wasn't pressed so hard on European populism.

Do you include the millions of Frenchmen that lived and died before Alexandre Dumas ever wrote a word?

Well it's a bit weird asking physically impossible hypotheticals, but what you're really asking is a spiritual question: whether the spirit of France before the Revolution would still have recognized him as one of ours.

I think it would. But I can see how one would disagree. Ultimately it's not really the sort of question that can be resolved through reasoned argument, is it? Nationhood is magic, it works on faith.