VIII. HISTORY THAT ILLUMINATES

.

THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERLYING ECONOMIES SHOULD BE OBVIOUS. WHY DOES MOST HISTORY FORGET IT?

Blook II explains.

*      *

In Old Regime France coachmen insulted each other by crying, "Your father was a valet!" They unknowingly buttressed their own subjection, because of the innumerable ways in which an economy that emanated from nobles's control reinforced their power. Today as well, laws, ideas, habits, etc. connect to serve the powerful. The trap is the same, and is as invisible to us as it was to them.  

Take how views of Paris and its past fit the mentality that the  ads that hover over megapolises promote:

At the Châtelet crossroad in central Paris

• The image encourages acting by emotion, since no logical reason for the purchase appears: "trust your gut," it says. Its sponsor, a multinational whose head is one of our lord and masters, approves more than wasting money on its brand. Like believing that Somali immigrants are "eating the dogs, eating the cats",.. . And innumerable other ways to  divide and rule.

Fifteen minutes of economically-based history in the tenth grade would vaccinate (the word  is deliberately chosen) against such manipulation. But the past is shown in a way that is as irrational as the ad, by listing facts that have no relation to economic goals: here is a schoolbook version of the Revolution of 1830, through which French capitalism took wing. 

Here's mine.

• The figure is alone.  (The rare secondary personnages do not change the isolation.)

Irina Zwerger

Along the Seine river

Collective action, including insurrection, is as much as possible left out: a string of examples appears here (toward the end of the page).  

• The background is a void, because only the brand counts.

Elisabeth Rawson

Behind the Flatiron building in Manhattan, photographed from Broadway.

Most tourism and history creates a comparable absence, by leaving out all that contradicts the desired message.

• The models of color that since 2000 often appear in ads (an evolution followed here) are usually young, optimistic, bland and middle class, exactly like whites. Is the deepest goal to create a vast, single market, where interchangeable people will buy products that differ only in the details of brands?  

• Even the asepticized past offers other frames of reference, plus human drama. It is being deleted.

The façade of the Opéra became a backdrop for ads in 2023 (photo of September 2025) 

Erasure began by substituting a rented tablet for the reality of Marie-Antoinette's (reconstituted) cell, by hiding the vestige of the medieval Louvre's rampart, the void at the Opera that highlighted tycoons' entry and the immensity of space in front of Notre-Dame Cathedral. The section "Willfully erasing the past" explains.

*    *

"All that seems to have permanence goes up in smoke, all that was sacred is profaned and men are at last forced to look lucidly at their conditions of existence and reciprocal ties." 

-- The Communist Manifesto 

But this ad and progressive demonstrations present a different vision:

The company is described here.

Mustafa Orhan Selçuk

The arrow points to a French group that helps unite protests world-wide, launched in 2025.

By unveiling a conditioning of which we are usually unaware, this blooks fits that spirit. 

If you find its ideas useful, 

please pass it on.

As well, here's much more 

on what Paris tourism and French history

leaves out.

*    *    *