This Generation Wouldn’t Last Five Minutes In The Storming Of The Bastille, 14 July 1789
If you ask me, today’s young people need to get their priorities straight
You reach a certain age and you start to think about what you’re leaving behind. Am I worried this generation will struggle more than those that came before? Let me ask you this. When was the last time you saw a young person seize a symbol of royal authority and strike the match of a revolution that would abolish a feudal system of government and lay the foundations for a new world order?
This generation wouldn’t last five minutes in the Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789. But of course there’s no explaining that to them. The conversation would go something like this…
You: “What would you and your friends do if the King’s troops marched on the National Constituent Assembly this afternoon?”
Them: “You’re enjoying that podcast then, Dad?”
You: “Tell me what you would do!”
This generation doesn’t realise how lucky it is not to know the things I’m only just learning about from a podcast now. But it’s time to grow up. Has the Crown dismissed a key statesman sympathetic to the people? Is there mounting suspicion that the nobility is withholding bread from the common mouth? Has regressive taxation left citizens without two sous to rub together? If they don’t know the answer or don’t know why you’re asking, these young people are in for a nasty surprise when there’s another Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789.
It looks like, once again, it’s up to us to act. Maybe we can still save this generation if we can only find some way of getting through. I know, I know what you’re thinking. Camille Desmoulins, he had followers. Georges Jacques Danton, there was a real influencer. And how did they rally the populace? I’m actually asking — I must have missed that episode and now I can’t seem to go back.
The worst part is probably when you realise how much this generation will never be able to do because they’re not trying hard enough. You’d think there would be 98 young people willing to lay down their lives to capture a medieval arsenal and political prison. But it seems we ask too much…
Them: “Would Saturday be alright, Dad? I’ve got to take Abby to her tots’ taekwondo class.”
Us: “Fine, but while you’re on the phone–– I’m in my downloads folder and episode three isn’t there. But it’s–– See, but it’s there on the website. I don’t know. This thing–– It’s broken. It’s broken.”
If you ask me, this generation needs to get its priorities straight. Because if they’re going to deal with the irreversible rises in global temperatures, record rates of human displacement, and economy built on a finite quantity of natural resources… They’re not going to have any time for a Storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789.
So, should we be worried what will happen when we’re gone? Put it this way. If these young people won’t listen to us, I only hope they’ll listen to new episodes of La Révolution Française, every Tuesday and Thursday wherever they get their podcasts. Maybe then they’ll realise how easy they have it. Because it’s not like we’re expecting this generation to extinguish the Great Fire of London, 2 September 1666. We’re not our parents.
