Friends are Electric

Whether spoken truly or not, the above says it all. The folly of the attempted escape from Paris of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette may serve as an important lesson to those who find themselves beaten.

The bread riots were an important contributing factor to the outcome of the French Revolution, and in fact may be the single most important reason for its success. The widespread starvation created a kind of class consciousness in the peasants of France, which pushed for changes to the way government was run. Their starvation, in a sense, awoke them to their power. The most obvious goal they sought was an end to their hunger.

To their credit, the monarchy did make an attempt to overcome the famine. One cannot judge the people, however, for remaining angry at the failings of the monarchy. Famine was not the only cause of the revolution, after all. However rightly, the king was judged by the outcome of his actions (or queen, as the case may be). And they had failed. Naturally this increased ill will towards the royal family. Ill will was already at quite high levels by this point, and justifiably the royals began to fear for their lives.

At this point the supposed statement was made. “Let them eat cake.” Evidence does not support that it was ever said, especially by Marie Antoinette. The statement is used as evidence of the royal’s lack of understanding of the situation in which they found themselves. What it means is that the royals, in their plenty, could not comprehend the suffering of the masses. Since they had plenty of food, even very rich delicacies (the cake) they failed to see that others did not. It is also important to note that a better translation of “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” would translate brioche as an egg bread, since it was not a cake as we understand it, but rather a very egg and butter rich bread.

Whether or not such a thing was ever said is irrelevant, since the next action of the king shows his complete lack of comprehension of the situation equally well.

The royals, while very likely blind to a great many things, were not blind to the danger of their situation. They fled Paris for a monarchist stronghold near the border of Holland. They dressed themselves as servants to a Russian baroness and fled in a very luxurious stage coach. When the party stopped to exchange horses, the king insisted on resting. He was recognized and they were captured later that morning, just a few kilometres from their goal. Why one would stop for a rest when fleeing for their life is a strange thing indeed.

An even more critical interpretation can be found on pages 499-501 of John Ralston Saul’s Voltaire’s Bastards.

What does this all mean? What is the lesson? Aside from the obvious, of course, which is to hide as quickly as possible if you are wanted dead.

The real lesson is that if you find yourself in a position of authority you must be receptive to the needs and problems of the people. The very worst type of bias is the idea that what benefits you most must necessarily benefit everyone most.