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This bit though:
Just as the dragoon passed by, the child hurled the stone and it struck the soldier’s helmet. The dragoon hesitated, but did not stop to pursue the child, and went his way at full gallop. But a woman—the child’s mother, probably — came out stealthily behind him, seized him by the collar and gave him a good hiding. I lowered my head.
“The women are not with us this time,” I said; “we are lost!”
Alexandre Dumas acknowledging that revolutions are not won by men’s military participation alone FTW! From France (apparently) to South Africa to Liberia to Colombia, overlook women’s opinions and actions and you risk overlooking what will happen next in war, peace, and revolutionary change.
Alexandre Dumas and the June Uprising
I’m still working on my next map post but I thought that meanwhile I need to make one thing clear:
If you haven’t read Alexandre Dumas’s account of the June Uprising YOU SHOULD!
His memoirs have been translated into English! You can download the relevant volume here: https://archive.org/details/mymemoirs06dumauoft (In fact everybody should probably also read his memoirs all the way through. I should read his memoirs all the way through…)
Seriously, it’s so much fun! Dumas is such a personality and he knew a lot of interesting and important people. And it’s just great to read about the events written by someone who actually was there. (Also why you should read Jeanne’s account too. They give two very different views into what happened. With Jeanne you get more about the actual uprising and what happened at the barricades, with Dumas you get more about the funeral procession and what was going on among the republican political leaders.)
BUT even if you don’t have the time or energy to read the whole book or even just the June Uprising account, you should at least read this following anecdote. TRUST ME IT’S WORTH IT. I mean it starts with Dumas being all like “oh hey, there’s a guy I know among those soldiers. I mean sure we almost tried to kill each other once but I’m sure he won’t shoot me if I approach them.” (spoilers: wrong) and then it just… well, let’s just say that it’s definitely not a predictable story.
And yes, this includes the reverse “Five Less, One More” episode.
(I broke it into smaller paragraphs to make it easier to read + the rest is under the cut. Oh and btw, the place where this happens is marked on the map that I posted [earlier]. Look for Porte St. Martin and “The theatres”.)
I followed the boulevard. It was intersected at the top of the street and the faubourg Saint-Martin by a detachment of the line; the men were drawn up in three rows. I was asking myself how I could go through that triple line alone, in my hostile uniform, when I discovered among the ranks an old battery comrade. True, I nearly fought a duel with him at the time over a difference of opinion. He was dressed in a round jacket, a policeman’s helmet and a pair of the buttoned knickerbockers called charivaris. He had a double-barrelled gun in his hand, and had joined the troops as an amateur.
Having recognised him, I thought I might feel easy and continued to advance, making signs with my hand. He lowered his gun. I thought he had recognised me, and was joking or wanted to frighten me, so I still went forward. Suddenly, he disappeared in a cloud of fire and smoke and a bullet whistled in my ears. I saw things were serious.
I was by the cafe de la Porte-Saint-Martin. I wanted to run into the theatre passage, but it was closed. I thrust the door of the theatre open with one kick. The fourth or fifth performance of La Tour de Nesle was put up on the bills. I ran to the property stores. I came across Harel on the stage. He tore his hair at seeing his successful run interrupted. As he perceived that I was turning away from him, he said, “Where are you going?”
“To the property stores”
“What do you want there?”
“Have you such a thing as a rifle?”
“Pardieu ! I have a hundred. You know very well we have just been playing… that is to say, unfortunately not I, but Crosmer… Napoleon à Schönbrunn.”
“All right, I want a rifle.”
“What for?”
“To return one of my friends a bullet he has just sent at me. Only, I hope to be more adroit than he was.”
“Oh! my friend!” exclaimed Harel, “you are going to get the theatre burnt down!” And he placed himself in front of the door leading to the property stores.
“Pardon, my friend,” I said to him, “I will give up the rifles as they are yours; but give me the pistols that I presented for the second representation of Richard: not only are they valuable ones but, also, they were a present.”
“Hide the pistols!” cried Harel to the man who had charge of the properties.
They hid them so well that I never saw them again.
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If you think Biden and Trump are the same, you do not know how much worse it can get. You do not know how much Trump has been restrained by norms that are fraying badly and risk breaking altogether if he gets away with his behavior and wins another cycle.
I went to school with a colleague, a peacebuilder, from Kenya who talked her way through riots and armed checkpoints targeting her friend’s tribal group during the post-election violence of 2007. She says the 2016 election rhetoric reminds her in a lot of ways of what she saw then.
I work with colleagues who have monitored hate radio before and after genocide, who see warning signs in Fox News, right-wing talk radio, and their white nationalist fringe cousins.
I have worked with journalists who regularly risk arrest, imprisonment, and torture for reporting stories critical of their governments. These colleagues see massive warning signs in Trump’s rhetoric and actions.
There is a difference. Do not kid yourself that things cannot get worse than they have been under our (yes, violent; yes, harmful) neoliberal system. Vote to stem the tide, and then work to change the system more.
so you'd vote for trump over biden or just not vote at all
if biden gets nominated i will be wasting exactly none of my energy on the 2020 elections. i’ll be doing other things for sure but i won’t be voting and i absolutely won’t be campaigning for biden