The beginning ceremony of the Paris Games was ingenious and unconventional. Unorthodox adequate to be influenced by a wave of criticism, headed by allegations of blasphemy and the promotion of Satanism through alleged reference to Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci. On Polish grounds, she joined this The affair around the Babiant IndustryFor whom the song adminine Lennon is simply a communist vision. The defenders of the "traditional values" fictitated themselves at these 2 points, which pushed aside another passage of the ceremony, besides insulting the worldview (ultra) of the conservatives.
Earlier, the eyes of the spectators were revealed to a figure holding her head singing ça ira, or revolutionary part about hanging aristocrats. This was an introduction to the performance of the metallic band Gojir, accompanied by dozens of guillotined characters, identified as representing Maria Antonina, the queen lost in 1793. The planet revolved photos of consternated mines present at the monarchs' ceremony, and any began to criticize the mention to the revolutionary past of France.
Innocent victim or traitor?
There have been voices defending a guillotine queen whose only “guilty” was to find herself in the incorrect place at the incorrect time, specifically in Paris mastered by bloodthirsty revolutionaries. However, the failure of the head was not due to the unpopularity of the Habsburg, embodying the excesses of aristocracy in the eyes of the French. During the invasion of the anti-French coalition, Maria Antonina corresponded with abroad, provided secret information and favored the approaching Austrian-Prussian troops, whose commanders threatened to burn the city. Under these circumstances, I don't think any country would find adequate indulgence.
Still, the Queen's defenders are not missing. Disgusted by the image of the headless Maria Antonina, Ryszard Legutko spoke of a disgusting spectacle that could only be born in a sick mind. individual else in an amazing way He was trying to tie This "glory of revolutionary ultraviolence" with the beheading of Islamists. The intercession for Maria Antonina was frequently accompanied by the attack on the full democratic and egalitarian work of the French Revolution. erstwhile talker of the Sejm Marek Jurek wrote that the capture of the Bastille symbolically freed “the degenerates and the madmen” (all the same was expected to do a fresh ceremony), nothing more.
The self-proclaimed whistleblowers of the revolution like to talk about the fact that only a fistful of prisoners were held in Bastille in July 1789, and most of the crew were disabled, so it had no meaning. They ignore the fact that in the days leading up to the storm, the king gathered around Paris many troops, mostly made up of foreigners, planning to unleash the soon-to-be disobedient National Assembly. The Parisian rebellion and the addition of soldiers stationed in the city prevented the suffocation of the revolution in the embryo. By the way, during these events and later Maria Antonina repeatedly urged her indecisive husband to act radically and drown Paris in blood, which her defenders like not to mention.
However, criticism of this part of the beginning ceremony did not come solely from ultraconservative environments. He besides negatively referred to her mostly praising the Jacobins of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, claiming that the death punishment should not be done by the object of jokes, and if he already mocked the overthrown monarchs, then next (or instead) Maria Antoinette Louis XVI should appear, more guilty of the betrayal of France. He is besides considered a hero by others, or alternatively a "holy" martyr.
Compassion for tyrants, but not for their victims
Every year in Warsaw, monarchist communities execute services to the “good King Louis”, so perfidiously murdered by ungodly revolutionaries. In a akin way, Nicholas II, a brutal and at the same time inept autocrat who ordered the beginning of fire for a peaceful demonstration, gave emergence to the 1905 Revolution. In the eyes of the ultraconservatives, the tragic end absolves even the man straight liable for the bloody repression and death of many thousands of people, guilty solely of wanting to improve their existence.
Of course, specified a thing can be abandoned by revolutions – neither the Jacobins nor another Republican politicians have kept clean hands in the implementation of the ideals of Enlightenment. The defenders of the old order are focusing on these more grim consequences of gaining the Bastille, forgetting that it was the monarchy that created the conditions in which the elimination of feudal privileges could not be without acute social conflict. Viktor Hugo summarized this situation in Losers, writing that resenting the atrocities of the revolution without noticing the injustices of its sources régime ancien It's like condemning lightning while ignoring the storm.
In this context, there is besides a disparity in empathy shown to the elite and the people, even though the majority of us are closer to the latter. On X, 1 of the most popular entries on Maria Antonina in fresh days comes from an account dealing with the past of women's fashion and describes the days before her execution. The Queen and another people of the ruling families have the advantage that we know their last moments in detail, we can follow the way to the stewardate and possibly enjoy the dignity shown in the face of death. It is harder to romanticize a starving peasant kid or to hang a nameless rebel whose death seems only a statistic.
People's stories inactive not enough
Speaking of statistics, I will quote 1 – according to historian Jean Nicolas, between 1661 and 1789 there were at least 8,500 open acts of disobedience to the authorities, from local riots to major revolts. That's about 70 mutinies a year. The most common conflict settlement was the excessive taxation burden imposed on peasants. Next, we will list hunger riots and speeches against aristocrats who were exempt from most taxes, dropping the state's maintenance on the shoulders of the 3rd State, held in check by violent repression. However, these are only dry facts and numbers, and names of severely punished rebel leaders (some were broken by a wheel, others were burned alive) frequently do not even know.
This shows that the current of "people's history" has a problem of jumping over certain limitations. About the lives of aristocrats and rulers we have incomparably more information, so it is easier to play with emotions recalling their stories, despite the fact that the average Frenchman is much closer to a peasant killed in hunger riots than a guillotine marquis. Historians have the hard task of confronting the communicative of elites with folk experiences – on the 1 hand it can be done in search of bottom-up relationships, on the another hand pointing to little attractive structural changes, improvement of democratic institutions or revolutionary concepts of human rights with the triad "freedom, equality, fraternity".
This is where we get back to the show a week ago. 1 may have doubts as to whether it is advisable to gag about someone's death, but during the beginning ceremony of the Olympic Games decapitated Maria Antonina was to be a symbol of the laying to the grave of the full system, not a peculiar person. The Queen embodies the old order, based on injustice, violence, making a sacrifice year after year from rebellious subjects. Farewell to the monarchy was not 1 of the easy and painless, which the headless figure besides recalls – the final consequence was, however, modern, democratic France. Therefore, most citizens of the republic will not cry over Maria Antonina or aristocracy.
