Bastille | Mindship

Fresh coffee beans on branch of coffee plant

Saviour of the morning, coffee, according to one legend, was discovered by a goat herd on a hot day. When all the world was prostate with the heat he noticed some of his goats gamboling about energetically after nibbling the berries of a coffee bush. The Ethiopian bush was exported to Yemen where the first coffee cultivation took place in the 15th century.

The red berries are dried and shucked to reveal the green coffee beans. These are roasted, ground and brewed into the black, bitter, acidic stimulant. It is a rich and deep liquid with a complex depth of flavours. It was originally used by Sufi mystics as a mind expanding drug and as an appetite suppressant. It was initially banned by Muslim law as haraam because it was thought to be an intoxicant like wine. But in the 16th century the ban was lifted, although to this day it is a drink regarded with suspicion and unsuitable for delicate young minds. Coffee is an adult drink.

Coffee houses are often associated with disrepute. In the Islamic world they were of concern as places for political gatherings. The first European coffee houses brought Turkish Ottoman culture to Christian souls. In England they were famous hangouts for gamblers and prostitutes as well as writers and artists looking for inspiration. The French Revolution was fueled by coffee as conspirators assembled in the coffee houses of Paris. Some historians attribute the availability of coffee to the Union army as a contributory factor to their success in the US Civil War. The Confederacy was reduced to chickory. In the first and second world wars the Germans, deprived of coffee, resorted to ersatz substitutes like roasted dandelion roots out of desperation. In the beat era of the 1950’s and the Rock and Roll era of the 60’s coffee shops were hangouts for new breeds of teenage rebels.

These days it has become the stuff of Huxley’s brave new world. It is a drink that comes with expensive kit and complex rituals. It is a consumerist pissing contest where you invite guests to look at your coffee machine and marvel that you have purchased a contraption to brew coffee that costs as much as a modest car. Quite a distance from the days when we stormed the Bastille in a caffeine fueled burst of societal outrage at income inequality.

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Today is the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 1798, the seminal action of the French Revolution. The impact of that revolution continues to be felt today. The French Revolution was an event that marked a watershed in world politics. Prior to the revolution the affairs of the world were dictated by three broad conditions.

1. God ruled, and understanding of affairs came from an understanding of the will of God.

2. In the Catholic nations the will of God was interpreted by the Pope. A strong papal representation was present in all the Catholic courts of Europe.

3. Monarchs took their authority from God, and ruled with divine right.

Now I know that the British out there are saying “wait a minute, we lobbed off Charlies head and did away with divine right way back in 1649. Agreed, but you also restored the monarchy albeit in a far more controlled manner. The rest of Europe was still lagging a long way behind.

After the French revolution the affairs of the world were dictated by a different set of conditions.

1. The scientific method became fundamental to human endeavour. Rational proof replaced fervent belief as the basis for understanding.

2. Since religion is founded on belief and not on rational proof, the power of the church waned considerably in the affairs of men.

3. The monarchy as a method for rule lost credibility with the passing years. People realised that it was better to be ruled by logic and merit than by divinity and birth.

To avoid traffic jams of pilgrims entering and leaving Rome, Popes advised that pilgrims walk on the left side of the road. The French in the revolution rejected the pope by instructing their troops to march on the right. This is why some countries now drive on the right and others drive on the left.

The evolution of the European Union today owes its origin to the visions of Napoleon Bonaparte. It was he who had the vision of a continental system with a single set of weights and measures and a single currency.

It took centuries for the changes wrought by the French Revolution to work their way through society. The vision of a European Union was eventually realised only after the devastation of two world wars.

Bastille day 1916 was around the mid-point of the Somme Offensive. In 1944 Bastille day was in the middle of the Battle of the Hedgerows, or the Battle for St Lo in Normandy, part of the Normandy invasion.

In 1998 on Bastille day my daughter was born and the Tour de France made its first and only visit to Ireland.

We as a society need to protect the values of the French Revolution. We need to defend reason and logic over misinformation, propaganda and blind faith. Too many good people died to give us rational democracy for us to give it away. Protect your rights, protect your democracy, inform yourself, and for the sake of logic and reason, please exercise your vote!

Arms and the Boy: Wilfred Owen

1 Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade
2 How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood;
3 Blue with all malice, like a madman’s flash;
4 And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh.

5 Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-heads
6 Which long to muzzle in the hearts of lads.
7 Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth,
8 Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death.

9 For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.
10 There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple;
11 And God will grow no talons at his heels,
12 Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls.

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