Napoleon

All I did today (and all I plan on doing) was sing with choir at church, so I'm going to treat you to a marvelous essay (with commentary, of course) about the French Revolution.

The French Revolution was a revolution of principals (Like the four useless administrators at our school). Its slogan was “Liberty, Fraternity, Equality” (this slogan was developed by a 15 person comité de développement de slogan. Other proposals were "La Guillotene: faster and easier than impalement" and "KILL THEM ALL!!!"). The people of the revolution fought to provide France with the general freedoms in the Declaration of the Rights of Man, equality for all, and a government of the people. Napoleon’s warping of the public opinion through propaganda and arrest of dissenters, misogynistic policies, and position as unchecked ruler of France denied the principles of the Revolution by ignoring freedom, equality, and the voice of the people (although, seriously, those revolutionaries botched up the freedom thing just fine on their own. Napoleon was merely the extremely short cherry on top that happened to possess a Napoleon Complex).

Napoleon's domestic policies denied the liberty of the French people. He censored the press and largely removed freedoms of speech. Napoleon is described as shaping public opinion through “crude forms of propaganda, but more importantly by the use of secret agents, arbitrary arrests, and executions.” (Lecture 15) (I feel that this should say secret sleuths, arbitrary arrests, and egomaniacal executions, for alliterative aims). Propaganda goes against the values of the revolution. The people supported him, but this was in part because they knew of no opposing views. “Printers and booksellers swore oaths of allegiance and all newspapers fell under state control.” (Lecture 15) People were controlled by what they knew. Like a horse with blinders on, they only went straight (My use of imagery is truly exceptional, non?). When they were allowed to make a decision, they would decide based on what they knew, which was very little. People’s liberties and powers of decision-making were removed by Napoleon’s dissent squashing policies (squoosh, squash, squishyyy, squelch). By preventing opposition, he prevented opinions, even though dissenting opinions started the revolution that brought him to power. According to the Declaration of the Rights of Man, “no one should be disturbed on account of his opinions”, and Napoleon’s destruction of dissenters obviously (like, duh!) ignored this. In addition, the declaration said, “The free communication of ideas and opinions is one of the most precious of the rights of man,” which clearly conflicts with Napoleons policy of propaganda. The Declaration of the Rights of Man was written to show what the revolters believed in. By ignoring the declaration, Napoleon effectively ignored the opinion of the revolution.

On second thought, this thing is unnecessarily long, so I'll just summarize the rest. Basically, Napoleon was also a total douche about women, and said (and I quote) “the husband must possess the absolute power and right to say to his wife: Madame, you shall not go out, you shall not visit such and such a person: for the children you bear, they shall be mine”. If some short little bastard said that to me, I would slap him. Also, empires aren't really freedom oriented, so being declared emperor screwed up that whole thing. My last paragraph is a mere three sentences long and makes no attempt at a big picture. Opmin would be displeased.

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Tea