The King of France addressed his people on the evening of April 13th 2020. He told them that their 4 week imprisonment to date was to be continued another 4 weeks. He told them that they will not be allowed to exercise their ancient right to meet and to watch sport or take a coffee in a café or bar for several weeks more after that. His knights hospitaller are fighting night and day to stay the terrible plague which will otherwise kill them all. They are winning the battle, but final victory cannot yet be guaranteed.
The King had originally asked his people to be good and stay at home. But the people were foolish and naïve. They love their pleasures and their freedoms too much. They ignored him.
The King failed to realise that 5 days notice was not enough. Like all Kings, the King of France thought that the people hung on his every utterance, and woke up every morning desperate to hear the latest words of wisdom fall from his lips. Like other Kings, the King of France suffers the delusion that every one must surely love him, and loving him they will do whatever he asks.
But they didn’t. So he waved his sceptre over the nation and declared a State of Emergency. Now they must do as the King says; they will obey him, otherwise the dreaded plague will sweep through the land and slay their brothers, their sisters, their mothers and their fathers; their uncles and aunts, their cousins and their friends.
But the King will save them from themselves, despite themselves. For the King knows best.
The King of course is superstitious, and in times of crisis kings always turn to their priesthood to help keep the people in subjection to their will. Their oracles have spoken. The plague is a mysterious phenomenon from the East. It must be handled with great care and caution. The people must be made to be afraid; the people have become self willed and foolish in recent years. They no longer heed the wisdom of the priests. They must be made to listen and to obey.
But the traditional counsellors of the King are restless. They see signs of trouble. They cannot speak against the priests for now – their power has become too great. But they are troubled. Very troubled. The economic powerhouse whose riches and taxes maintain the priesthood in all their glorious splendour is critically threatened. The money may run out. What then ?
The people are groaning under the weight of the King’s constraint. The millions confined in small flats in the sprawling suburbs of France’s great cities are becoming unmanageable. The King’s soldiers are reporting disturbing levels of domestic violence which they predict can only get worse as the imprisonment of the people drags on. They no longer speak of the outlaw lands where the drugs gangs rule. The soldiers have never regained control there; the criminals are the only people allowed to flout the King’s decree imprisoning the people. The Outlaws know no Law but their own.
And the King’s rivals are resentful. The King, his Priests and the Plague have all the attention. The nations troubadours and clowns are obsessed with the Plague – they can neither see nor find any other source of news or entertainment. The Troubadours no longer talk about, or to, the King’s rivals. The Crisis has eclipsed all other concerns and the King’s power is Supreme.
But they are biding their time. They will take revenge once the Plague abates; when the King can no longer plead a National Emergency; when the King brings back his hated plans to destroy the special pension Privileges of the powerful Craft Guilds of lawyers and workers in the key energy and transport sectors.
They will have their Revenge. And all the better if the people become restless of the King’s Confinement Decree and take to the streets to over turn it and annul his Authority. The people here are known for disposing of tyrants.
I have no news as to whether the King of France has welcomed the recovery of his friend and rival across the narrow waters which divide their two kingdoms. The King across the waters has survived an attack of the dreaded plague. He too is subject to the spell of the Priesthood for Health and Immortality – the more so now that he believes they saved his life.
Perhaps his advisers also have concerns about the Spell the Priests have cast …
Ray Catlin
POST SCRIPT all the above is based in fact. For example, a cursory reading of the French Constitution reveals that the French President is an elected monarch – France’s own Constitutional Experts say so.
Conservatism Institute 