Manon Lescaut & the U.S. Government

Why do millions of American continue to believe anything the U.S. government says?

One of my favorite novels is Manon Lescaut, written by the French priest and novelist, Abbé Prévost, and published in 1731. The dramatic quality of the story inspired five operas, including two that are still part of the classic repertoire by Massenet and Puccini.

The novel tells the story of the seduction and ruin of a young and good-natured French nobleman named the Chevalier des Grieux by a girl named Manon Lescaut. Upon seeing the girl being forcibly sent to a convent as punishment for various perfidious acts, the Chevalier is instantly smitten and uses his influence to free her. He then abandons everything to run away to Paris with her, where they rent a modest apartment. Though the Chevalier comes from a noble family, he does not have sufficient income to keep Manon in style, and she soon finds other wealthy men to satisfy her extravagant tastes while pretending to be in love with the naive boy.

Initially rescued by his father—who provides him with clear evidence that Manon is running around with other men—the Chevalier simply cannot forget the girl’s lovely visage. When she reappears, he once again abandons everything. In order to support her, the Chevalier resorts to gambling, fraud, theft, and ultimately murder. When she is deported to the French penal colony in New Orleans, he joins her and engineers her escape from prison. They then flee into a Louisiana swamp, where she dies in his arms, leaving him an exhausted and broken man, probably destined to die in the vast swamp.

It’s no wonder that Puccini found great inspiration in the story, as he loved stories of grand and irrational passion that result in total ruin for everyone.

Reading Manon Lescaut, one is continually forced to ask, “Why does the poor Chevalier continue to believe Manon’s assurances?”

He simply cannot overcome his irrational passion for the girl—a passion that defies his reason, social standing, and dignity. Despite her repeated infidelities, abandonment of him for wealthier men, and the ruin she brings upon him, his tenderness for her remains.

I personally find the Chevalier des Grieux far easier to understand than the inveterate suckers known as the American people, who continue to trust their manifestly corrupt, treacherous, homicidal, insane, weirdo rulers.

With precious few exceptions, there is not a single politician in Washington I would trust any further than I could throw the Washington Monument.

Why do the American people continue to trust the representatives of the federal government?