La Belle Epoque- Part 6- Extract- Copyright Robert Fullarton

La Belle Epoque- Part 6- Extract- Copyright Robert Fullarton



6

“It was said that the social experiment had failed in the past, strong
leadership was a necessity that had been abandoned through the
watershed or diluted reforms of the times. Liberality was a costly
game for the people; the whole structure of the old civilization fell
apart. Animals had evolved into men and likewise men slipped once
again back down the ecological chain to become the animals again. All
the contents and the dregs of the sewer had been opened up, all that
was underground had come into open office, drugs could not be
controlled, law and order became a business and not an authority, sex
became retail, the genders became controlled and warped through a
media that yielded absolute power. Their complacency was a costly one
and as the party raged on through the night- a never ending party some
assumed- the sky itself was falling down upon their heads, the
laughter was fading, the drunken urchins on the street swaggered into
their taverns, the sky turned a russet brown hue, the earth was dying,
the warnings had been ignored. The Earth was too big to ever monitor,
vice, degradation, anarchy, moral collapse, a loveless place, no
recognition or interest whatsoever for the animals, a sort of courage
to dare, a courage to think, all these elements and ingredients in the
good life were negligently missing from the mix.”

Zero stood before his class at the Darmstadt Academy giving a lecture
on New State history –that touched minutely onto philosophy- with the
whole class fixated and devoted to every word that poured forward from
his lips.
“Sir! Don’t you think that you seem a little dramatic? I mean you are
talking philosophy more so than history here. I think we have gone of
the subject slightly”, said one of the students in the front row.
“Well, Paco, I am simply giving you an extension of your curriculum to
make this lecture and this class that bit more interesting and even
more beneficial to your coming examination. I think a good historian
has to delve into philosophy to understand the process of history,
what is lacking and why the machine turns; no man will fight the
machine because they are afraid to face a prevailing tide that might
cost them their apparent life. But I tell you that you have to pay the
price sometimes to earn a life, you aren’t given a life, you have to
earn it, it hurts, its cost is the breaking of human bondage, its mind
is psychotic to many but those who can stretch themselves and achieve
it, will be happier than the rest, their world within, will be
fulfilled and the secrets of their life shall be hidden from all
others. That was one of the fundamental reasons why the Old Society
came to a speedy destruction –there were the obvious reasons for its
decline and destruction- but we must also state that there were few
“thinkers” left, few men of merit and distinction, the community
spirit is healthy and well when men of good merit and distinction are
in control.”
“Do you think we have become a society of merited thinkers?”
Said one of the boys in the back of the classroom, but before Zero
could even reply to this dilemma another pupil in the front row had
hastily prompted another question.
“Why would we need to think? When men of distinction are in control,
the thinking can be done by the strong for the strong, measure for
measure, leave the thoughts to the central intelligence of the state.”
“Well every concept needs to be tested for its truth, like its use-
lets just say in terms of labour- we plummet to dangerous depths if we
don’t have a more comprehensive view of the world. We have vaguely
heard about the Stoic philosophers and have heard the bellows of the
vast echoes of history that stand before our very lives. We know the
mortality of our life, the vulnerability of our exposures, the abyss
of nihilism that looms beneath our eyes as a warning and a choice if
we fail to think and test the truth of a situation. A society cannot
flourish in ignorance, but in a rich knowledge of the universe and the
experiences it entails. All philosophy is the consequence of our
choice and the testing of the truth. History can be corrupted for the
uses of the state but philosophy always stems from the experiences of
the private individual.”