This is an interesting movie, and probably worth watching. The Left is twitchy. If they had guns they would be making spasmodic movements towards them continually. As it is, they make continual open calls for the people who DO have guns to suppress, to hunt, to imprison, to silence the INSURRECTIONISTS–believe it or not, I see this farcical word used a lot out there in the wilds of Leftdom–before they RUIN EVERYTHING.
How, exactly, do they think we will ruin everything? Well, rhetorically, it is by destroying democracy. Implementing Fascism. They don’t see, because they really don’t want to see, that their OWN methods are the only things resembling Fascism. Asking reasonable questions about a patently rigged election is not Fascism. Undermining through spurious investigations and continual harassment a duly elected President (Trump, to be clear) IS Fascistic. Or at least Communistic, which is the brother to Fascism, even if the two don’t get along, as some brothers don’t.
So the people who are worried about the destruction of democracy and rule of the law, it seems, feel compelled to destroy the principle of one person/one vote through centrally orchestrated and more or less blatant voter fraud; to openly and enthusiastically break all of our immigration laws by importing illegally as many people as will come, in in the hope they will vote Democrat, since they plan to give them as much treasure as it takes; to conduct Kangaroo Courts for those they can, and to suppress investigation of their own wherever they need to and can; and overall to make a mockery of equal justice, with their own elites patently enjoying legal protection from any number of crimes, patently including taking bribes from foreign governments, as both Hillary and Joe Biden clearly have.
In this movie, note that in effect both sides understand that there is no military or violent solution to what in effect is a political problem. Even extreme effectiveness–which the French Paras achieved–was not enough to prevent France from, in the end, leaving Algeria, forcing an enormous flight of refugees (many of whose descendants, I read, may decide todays election in France), and the mass torture and execution of those unable to escape.
Nobody wins, really, in tit for tats of that sort. Algeria itself suffered another brutal civil war in the 1990’s. Algerian contra Algerian. Around the world, ending colonialism in certain ways often generated mass violence, with the partition of India–so eagerly sought for and worked for by Gandhi (who said “Western Civilization would be a very fine thing”, in effect, but who should have foreseen the consequences of his actions, in my view)–perhaps the most extreme example, in that millions of people died violent deaths.
This world is a violent place, but violence is rarely a complete long term solution to any problem.
In our own country, I continue to believe our only real hope is that with persistence and engaged eloquence and coherence and sincerity, that the delusion thinking of the Communists inhabiting our universities might gradually fade. These children feel the pain of little birds and baby squirrels, but feel nothing about many of their fellow humans but hatred. This hate is taught. It is bred. It is cultivated. And perhaps it can be reversed. It will take more courage than I see on display, but it is not impossible.
And again, if you watch that movie, you can see how awful things can become. There were no innocents in that movie, by and large. Both sides committed horrible atrocities.
Paul Assauresses, who was one of the models for the composite figure of Colonel Mathieu, referenced the El Halia Mine episode specifically. Here is some detail on that:
The most heinous massacre of the day occurred at the El-Halia pyrite–mining town, where about 130 Europeans and 2,000 Muslims lived and worked together. The mob was essentially composed of hundreds of native peasants, both men and women, mostly armed with farming tools, axes, sharpened shovels, or knives, and was led by 25 FLN regulars. They arrived near 11 am, when most of the men were working in the mine while women and children were at home. A bloody massacre ensued, as European women were raped and disembowelled or decapitated, children had their throats slit and babies were slammed against walls until their heads caved in. Some of the local Muslim inhabitants who had initially watched without reacting enventually joined the excited mob, as it massacred Europeans under chants of ‘Allah Akabar’ that blended with Algerian women’s ululations. Thirty-seven Europeans, mostly women and children, were murdered in the attack
The principle is simple: violence leads to violence on both sides. You may think you are the bad ass top dog one day, but the next you can expect something horrible in retaliation.
In the movie, the police officer sets a bomb (at the wrong address, by the way, in response to the arrest of an innocent man), and a few days or weeks later, French cafes get bombed and many innocents, on the other side, killed. Nobody wins.
I believe in Fate of a sort. If enough Americans commit to darkness, then perhaps that will be what we get. In a just universe, that is the outcome. You ask for it, you get it.
But if enough of us maintain light within us, then perhaps this evil can be ended. I don’t know. I have no way of knowing. I am not the person to make mindlessly positive predictions. History is filled with unredeemed horrors.
Humankind is weak, and mean, and stupid. Fight these things in yourself.