The French Can't Quite Make Up Their Minds When it Comes to Monarchy

Having just read this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/13/nicholas-jean-sarkozy-nepotism-row I have to say the French haven't changed one bit. They just can't make up their minds when it comes to how they feel about a good, old-fashioned Monarchy.

The same country that came up with the Declaration of the Rights of Man made Napoleon Emperor not long thereafter.







They lopped off the head of Louis XVI, then (granted, with little choice from the Allies after Napoleon had driven them to ruin) restored the Bourbon dynasty with Louis XVIII!







They were an integral nation in the European revolutions of 1848, then voted Louis Napoleon to lead the Second Empire!







They gave birth to the Paris Commune in 1871, then sanctioned (justifiably, it could be argued) its subsequent and violent suppression.







France seems rather caught up in their own version of a romanticized Camelot at the moment, accompanied by a hostile undercurrent of suspicion and criticism. A well-documented and very consistent tradition of ambivalence...

Isn't Meritocracy a more important component of a just society than perhaps Representative Democracy itself? The proof is in the pudding, right? We ask only to be recognized and judged fairly by our work, and nothing else. Certainly, a "prodigious" offspring should not be penalized for talent, but in cases such as the above one should err on the side of caution.

Nepotism and Cronyism, it should be noted, are alive and well - thriving, even - in all contemporary social systems touting themselves as equitable, in the spirit of the rights of man, democratic, etc., etc., etc.

This is the litmus test of unwarranted privilege, social stratification, and the downfall of judgment by merit; a central - if not the central - component of a just and healthy social system, with equal opportunity for all. That is why we should frown (maybe "frown" is too tepid a word) when someone like George Bush gets his nepotistic nudge into Yale, or when Sarkozy's very young son gets appointed to some ridiculously senior position.