"He was one of the most brilliant minds. She was his lifelong companion who pioneered feminism.Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir were perhaps the most influential couple of the 20th century.
Their influence continues to this day - often with disastrous consequences.
A fascinating new book paints this supposedly high-minded duo as serial seducers bent on their own gratification and as a couple who used their apparently lofty philosophy as a springboard to excuse their multiple liaisons, often with under-age teenagers who were broken by the experience.And while Simone de Beauvoir preached her ideal of feminist independence and equality, eschewing such 'bourgeois' concepts as marriage and children, and claiming women should behave just like men, the truth is such a lifestyle made her bitterly unhappy and she became obsessively jealous over Sartre's countless conquests.
Despite her high-flown rhetoric, it was only for revenge and out of frustration that she embarked on affairs, always secretly hoping they would provoke Sartre to return to her.And, astonishingly, it was her craven desire to please him that led de Beauvoir to groom young female lovers for Sartre, commonly girls she had bedded herself."
-- From a review of A Dangerous Liaison by Carole Seymour-Jones, in The Daily Mail
why is it always about sex?
ReplyDeleteSex is just a pawn, a toy, a weapon, currency.
ReplyDeleteThe ironic thing is that Sartre did more to popularize atheisim than any other 20th century literary figure besides Albert Camus.
ReplyDeleteAnd lets not forget Voltaire...
Atheism is no more a French invention than breathing. There have always been non-believers. All that's changed is the willingness - or the ability - to speak up:
ReplyDeleteIn the past, it simply meant death.
Sorry to contradict you, but the English term atheism was derived from the French athéisme in about 1587.
ReplyDeleteFuck the root of the word - I'm talking about the act of not believing - and that, my friend, has always been with us.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing the French ever invented was confusion.
True the French did not "invent" the act of not believing, but they did invent the word and no serious historian would disagree that French authors and thinkers have done more to advance the concept of atheism in the last 3 centuries than any other group in the world.
ReplyDeleteWhether this is a good thing, or a bad thing, depends on your point of view.
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The first known atheist who threw off the mantle of deism, bluntly denying the existence of gods, was Jean Meslier, a French priest who lived in the early 18th century. He was followed by other openly atheistic thinkers, such as Baron d'Holbach, who appeared in the late 18th century, when expressing disbelief in God became a less dangerous position.
The French Revolution took atheism outside the salons and into the public sphere. Attempts to enforce the Civil Constitution of the Clergy led to anti-clerical violence and the expulsion of many clergy from France. The chaotic political events in revolutionary Paris eventually enabled the more radical Jacobins to seize power in 1793, ushering in the Reign of Terror. At its climax, the more militant atheists attempted to forcibly de-Christianize France... [and] some of the secularizing measures of this period remained a permanent legacy of French politics.
The Napoleonic era institutionalized the secularization of French society, and exported the revolution to northern Italy...
Sure, sure. Yea, yea:
ReplyDeleteBut they still believe in homeopathy's "spiritual" properties more than almost any other nation. They sell, and buy, "magic healing stones" on T.V., and there's racism - especially against Jews and blacks, but, really, against anyone that isn't French and "white" - that would make you scream...I did. I even felt bad for the Arabs there.
Long story short: they've traded organized religion for unorganized bullshit. They're a nation of muddle-headed idiots. I know because I lived there. I gave them a chance - several actually - and they blew it.
They can't think their way out of a paper bag and the current state of that nation proves it.
They're a bunch of losers with an unwarranted sense of arrogance.
I loved this post. Crack returns to his roots as the voice of John The Baptist. Which is another sign for believers that the return of the Messiah is very near.
ReplyDelete