Old money, lasting lessons

My grandfather collected several kinds of things: coins, hats, German beer steins, and -- believe it or not -- pens. This box was just one of two pen boxes that he left behind.

But it was his coin collection that I remember most from my childhood -- not his uncirculated coins, but the ones he'd gotten from the places he'd been. Some of them were from before the war; it was like looking back in time....

Now that I'm older, I have an even great appreciation for them -- coins from countries that no longer exist (South Vietnam), former colonies (Hong Kong with Queen Elizabeth on them), and ones who've since adopted the euro (Portugal, Italy, etc).

He even had some Series 641 (1965-1968) Military Payment Certificates left over from his time in Germany, and a few Weimar-era Reichsbanknotes -- the stuff people used to wallpaper their houses when hyperinflation destroyed the German economy. According to a 1924 Los Angeles Times story (via Wikipedia) banks "turned the marks over to junk dealers by the ton" to be recycled as paper. To this day, inflation is anathema in Germany because of stuff like this.

Yet the thing with most poignant lesson is this 1942 French coin. It doesn't say "Republique Française." It says "French State." And it doesn't promote such liberal notions as "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité." Rather, it reads "Work, Family, Country."

The difference in mindset is striking -- in defeat, Vichy France had turned inward and distinctly more conservative. So the question arises -- even 150 years after the French Revolution, was Vichy France an "isolated, exceptional phenomenon or one rooted in often long-standing traditions of public life"? [Source]

It's a question I find myself asking about the United States today, as we undergo this period of conservatism following the developments of the past 8 years (our first black president, LGTQs serving openly in the military, and de-criminalization of marijuana use). Are these attitudes something isolated, or have they been there all along? I regret to say it, but it definitely seems like the latter.

In many ways, the similarities between 1942 Vichy France and the U.S. today are striking. Marshal Pétain led a traditionalist government with strong ties to the aristocracy and the church. President Trump has touted his business acumen, filled his cabinet with the very rich (business elites being the closest thing we have to an aristocracy) and -- despite being in his third marriage -- drew strong support from the social conservatives of the religious right.

Pétain drew on Gallic imagery (such as that double-edged axe, the labrys) to build legitimacy, emphasized a return to "the true France," and promised to regenerate a country suffering from la décadence of the Third Republic. President Trump has promised to "Make America Great Again," consistently contrasted his performance against President Obama's (even when it's no different), and touts mediocrity as success to build legitimacy.

Pétain also spoke directly to the French people frequently via national radio, calling them to turn inwards and withdraw from the world, which he always portrayed as a hostile and threatening place full of endless dangers for the French. [Source] Similarly, Trump frequently uses Twitter to reach directly to the public, and has withdrawn from both the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Climate Agreement.

Fortunately, Vichy France didn't last long. By 1944, the country was liberated and the Fourth Republic would soon begin. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité retook its place on the nation's coinage, and the fear of Germany would be replaced by partnership in the European Community.

I'd like to think our present mindset, with all its incumbent fears, will also pass quickly.