We're on a roll today.
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Quoth Whir: We need to have an entire website dedicated to Marechal conversations.
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Me: Napoleon lost, though.
Besides, he completely subverted the Revolution.
Which isn't to say that the Revolution didn't need subverting, but when the whole goal of the thing is to ESCAPE monarchy, well.
But it's, you know, the French. Can't do anything right.
Marechal: Napoleon abolished the monarchy!
Me: Yeah, you could sort of say he did. Except then he set himself up, which sort of, you know, defeats the purpose.
Marechal: As Emperor.
Me: Because, you know, changing the name makes your dictatorship that much better than other, wannabe dictatorships.
Me: Whir: Ask him how he feels about giant airships, steam-powered muskets, and chivalry.
Marechal: Bah
Me: Bah to the combo of steam powered airships/muskets and chivalry, or were you conceding the point that Napoleon subverted the Revolution in a completely unacceptable manner?
Marechal: None. Napoleon saved the Revolution by ending it.
Me: Granted that the whole Reign of Terror business wasn't exactly a bastion of Goodness, Light, and the Warm Fuzzy Feeling, but, well, you know. Setting yourself up as Emperor is such a good expression of liberty, equality, and fraternity.
*some 10 minutes pass*
Me: I see you are completely unable to respond to my devastating verbal riposte.
Marechal: In order to save the benefits of the Revolution from the clutching arms of the royalists, the monarchists, the RCC, the other European powers, communists, and infidels, Napoleon had to centralize the government in France in the person of himself as Emperor in order to safeguard the nation from the enemies within and without.
Me: So he was a lot like Hitler, then, is what you're saying.
Marechal: Except Hitler was a bad man.
Me: Well, you know. Take away the anti-Semitism and all, and add in a maniacal desire to conquer the world, starting with Russia.
Oh wait.
Marechal: Napoleon was about the only Emperor the Jews ever did well with for the record. Napoleon=hero of the Jews.
And Napoleon didn't have the whole genocide thing going on. He liked to play with little kids. =D
Me: Just like Michael Jackson!
Posted by Dwip at April 26, 2005 7:37 PMYEAH!!!!! The RNC is on the same side as the infedels for wanting to subvert the revolution!
Oh. RCC. Sorry.
Posted by: Tim at April 30, 2005 9:58 AMWhat's the thrust of this conversation? If you're postulating that Napoleon did, in fact, subvert the revolution, you're contradicting not only much of current historical opinion, but a valid perspective at large. Certainly, the list of anti-Revolutionary policies that made up the Napoleonic regime is long, but the practical effects of his centralization and the long-standing legacies of an entrenched civil code, the continunation of an abolished feudalism, a meritocratic governing class, individual property rights, and his favorable attitude both toward divorce and Jewish rights is a list of achievements certainly long enough to justify the notion that he salvaged much of what was important to the revolution. Moreover, he also laid the foundations for a litany of future augmentations that, potentially, might never have been realized had he not intervened.
Posted by: Ben at December 1, 2005 9:09 PM