American Demons

Nightmares of Humanity

Boxing was developed in the fencing schools. That's why it's so effective. The deadly core is still in the art. It needs less then two seconds to take someone out. 

What happened before

The French Revolution eats its rich children. Progresse aristocrats, who had - as allies of the insurgents - denounced members of their own class, run the risk of being executed themselves in the second round. In the meantime, the first Robespierre supporters are on the run from their own terror. In the Camargue, they meet Indulgents in hiding who have been warned of Danton's death on April 5. The radical democratic sword virtuoso Seymour Coogan accompanies a disgraced courtier into exile.

Bullfights in the Camargue

In 1794, Coogan reports on bullfights in the Camargue. The American secret agent, writer, journalist and martial arts expert is one of the bodyguards of a deposed prince who makes much less of a fuss about relegation than his satellites, who haggle with the wimps of other losers for millimeter-scale gains in distinction. Down-and-out aristocrats now live as professional gamblers and cascadeurs among horses, bulls and a very special breed of people related to the nature of Provençal buccaneers.

"The French grandee has only a semblance of prestige. The common man nonetheless kowtows to him out of gray habit."

Coogan notices an amphitheater blasted into the rock by nature, which is played by lizards as if in memory of their gigantic predecessors:

"The colossal lizards provide motifs for the nightmares of humanity," writes Coogan in his notes. He explains: "No government has a foothold in this area. Men pretend to be fishermen and breeders. Their true profession lies in resistance against the foreign, unless it suits them like these counts and their small states in the style of traveling circuses. Wherever the chased people settle, a game operation is set up.

"Either you lose everything on the tables or you gets hooked by a girl, which amounts to the same."

Coogan possesses encyclopedic momentum. He is a master of close range combat. He believes himself to be inspired by progress and considers the decryption of the world in the wake of enlightenment and rationalism to be inevitable. In the meantime, the first Robespierrists are on the run from their own terror. In the Camargue, they meet Indulgents in hiding who have been warned of Danton's death on April 5. Everyone knows about the disastrous turnout. A few thousand activists take care of the citizens' democratic business, disregarding political decency. The people may be pure in revolutionary terms, but they are unenlightened, while formerly high-ranking figures suck on straws, bored by the course of history.

The republican Coogan accompanies relatives of the executed Louis to Calais. He travels in amazement at the nonchalance of the refugees. No one expected the revolution to drag on like this. Every nobleman expects diversion in his case, despite the bloody displeasure of Jacobin politics.

Where do people get their courage from? Is it in their blood to recklessly assume the best when the assumption has already been refuted by reality? Coogan corpses about this in articles. He comes to the conclusion that the nobility relaxes from experience. The nobility does not believe in the power of the people, no matter how much they toiled away. He waits for the next Caesar, who will find it convenient to reactivate the old elites.

Coogan tells the escape story as a pilgrimage of invalids who barely want to stand, let alone walk or ride. They lie more than they sit in the carriage and expect everything at the touch of a finger. What the American finds even more interesting is that they also get what they want from a servant class that is proud to have obeyed the lordship for decades.