Party like its 1789 [bastille day]

Eugène Delacroix

Liberty leading the people, 1830

Oil on canvas.

Today Francophiles everywhere commemorate Bastille Day…and in classic french style, the Parisian paper of record Le Monde published the following analysis this morning. [fyi-bastille day is celebrated each year in france by a large parade, led my the military through paris and followed by fireworks]

Paradox: “contradiction”. Origin, at the end of the Middle Ages, the Greek paradoxos, “opposite with the common opinion”.

What could be more paradoxical than the military procession of the July 14? Let us imagine that an armed crowd is assembled in front of a Parisian prison with an aim of taking it by storm and releasing the prisoners (exactly what occurred on July 14, 1789). The armed forces would more than likely intervene to disperse the mob-it is for this reason that they exist. And yet, here it is today that the contemporary army “commemorates” an event which its predecessors had not managed to prevent: a little as if [religious right leader and notorious homophobe] Christine Boutin drove a tank to the gay pride.