Honour and Respect

Day 2,881, 19:03 • Published in India Albania • by Ruler of The New World

I have decided, after 16 years on this planet, that humans are decidedly odd.

Huh?


Let me explain, last night I watched the Les Misérables production that is running here in Sydney for the third time. In saying that it makes it my fourth viewing of the play since I saw it while in London on the West End way back in 2011. I also have three different versions of the soundtrack on my phone (1995, West End, and the current Sydney, the movie also happens to rate in my Top 1 of all time thus far. I read the book back in 2012, all 1332 pages of 10pt Times with very narrow margins.



And to be honest it changed my life.


I read a lot, not just for school but for my own personal entertainment. This, amongst my peers brings is unusual, nevertheless my appetite for the written word has not yet been staunched. Currently as it stands my top three novels of all time are:
-Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo
-The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien
-The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas

All three of these changed my life, and interestingly enough, they all happen to revolve around the same general themes; Honour and Respect. Those of you who have seen any renditions of the above, be they literary, audible, visual, musical, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera will realise that what I am saying is totally and utterly true.

I could write on this for hours, but lose your attention soon enough, so I will instead talk about the primary only. If you don't know the story, just go with it.

In Les Misérables. Enjolras the brave patriot, alongside Valjean and the dogged Javert are the central compasses for the above piece. They display the basic human traits upon which every and all society is based; those of Freedom, Justice, Purity and Honesty. Now reading those terms it becomes obvious that no matter how they are used the fall under the umbrella term of Honour and Respect. For those of you who know the story, Javert is not as he would otherwise seem, he is the brutally honest and incorruptible force of the tale. Being so relentless in his persecution of Valjean he would appear evil, crooked and twisted- just like Russell Crowe actually is. But in actual fact, his behaviour, in regards to his position is perhaps more honourable than Enjolras, the French Che Guevara (another role model of mine own).

Therefore, using Les Mis as an acute analogy, our narrow parameters of Honour and Respect are almost totally incorrect. Enjolras, the student revolutionary and protector of the masses, is used by Hugo as a metaphor for the down trodden and miserable rising up against the bourgeoisie aristocracy. But it must be made clear that the Honourable and Respectful characteristics displayed by such secondary protagonists are not in fact any more Honourable or Respectful than any other major character in the work.

You may be wondering where I am going with this.

You may also be wondering why I think "humans are decidedly odd".

We as an audience last night immediately connected with the revolution and Valjean and simultaneously disregarded and dismissed as negligent Javert, the gendarmes and the narrow French populace. Make no mistake, Hugo was a genius, the musical is brilliant and the film awesome, but it is extremely important that we do not forget about motives.

We as humans, unless you are President Snow form the Hunger Games, are attracted to the "underdog". They epitomise the honest and respectful qualities that we crave for both ourselves and them. Why?

Empathy.

That's it, empathy. So perhaps the point of Les Mis, is not for it to be a romanticised and exquisitely extravagant protest. But instead for it to be a picture of the foundations of society. The foundations, reflected in both the alleged "good" and "bad". The elusive concept that would apparently define us as civilised people (I use the term lightly), is in fact undefinable.

The perspective is what counts.



Yes, I gel with the revolution and the young, the patriotic and the bold, but I cannot forget the sacrifices of the Honourable and the Respectful in all facets of the piece. Les Mis is a masterpiece, a compendium of human nature and it should be viewed as the microcosm of the world it is.

People are odd because they forget that in fact it is not Honour and Respect that drives society, it is the Empathy, our universal acknowledgment of perspectives. And we have forgotten this, the thing that makes us humane, and therefore human.

So think about this, think about your Honour and your Respect, and think on my words, forget your pseudo chivalry, you blunt pretence of respect and instead truly think, and I mean truly think of empathy, and then your life will change.



Real eyes
Realise
Real lies