18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

[cahn]

In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

Comments

Re: Henri IV and Louis XIII

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yeah, I was thinking of the conspiracy: if feelings are running so strong among the parties that there are conspiracies happening over who the real dauphin is, the mistress's kid or the Queen's kid, adults are definitely talking about it in Louis' presence. Three-year-olds fight spontaneously with their siblings, I know this from my own experience with my siblings as well as observation of my nephews, but they don't come up with "It's not appropriate for lords to dine with their servants" as a rationale on their own. At this age, that kind of thing is parrotting what they've overheard or possibly even been coached to say.

Actually, if you study primatology, you can see this pattern in monkey species that have a strict hierarchical structure: the kids start off not knowing who's in what rank and being willing to play with any kids their own age. It's Mom monkey who drags her kid away from playing from someone who's too high ranked or too low ranked. And then the kids grow up convinced that hierarchy is THE most important thing, and they enforce the rules when it comes time to raise their own kids.

Countess Cosel, thinking of her own contrasting fate in similar cirucmtances: ....Clearly, my mistake was not trying to kill August.

Clearly!