Rue Transnonain April 15th, 1834

The other day I was very upset by an article I received from a doctor I follow online. I am making no exaggeration when I say that his medical advice has saved my quality of life. Due to a variety of personal experiences I have a deep distrust of the medical profession in general and he is one of the few I trust.

Those who speak out about effective alternative treatments to mainstream medicine have been threatened and smeared over the years, but lately he and others who believe in alternative medical treatments have been targeted on a whole new level. He and these others have been put on an actual hit list by the US govt. and mainstream media outlets.

See link here for the hit list. It includes the son of an American political dynasty.

Because of all of the pressure he is receiving, this doctor is now taking down all the articles in his extensive archive which he has compiled over the last 25 years and any new articles he posts will be taken down after 48 hours.

When I read this, I cried.

It has come to this; where free speech is no longer allowed for people who disagree with a popular narrative. If you disagree or step out of line and speak out against fear, your voice will be taken away; you could lose your job or worse…

I find it bizarre that someone who has been so maligned and ridiculed as a quack, is seen as such a threat. Odd, isn’t it? If he really was a quack, if the treatments he touts were ineffective, or genuinely harmful, would he ever have achieved the level of readership and loyalty he has over the years?

Oddly enough, while I was so upset about what was happening to this doctor being censored and banned, what came to mind was a piece I had studied in an Art History class.

Allow me to explain.

By 1834 France had already had several bloody, “revolutions” that had been devastating and accomplished NOTHING. There was a new king on the throne and many considered him as bad as the rest.

Yet as weary as the people of France were of bloodshed and fighting, they still yearned for freedom and were willing to demand their rights. It was in this environment that Honore Daumier grew up in. He was a young caricature artist who worked for a publication called L’Association Mensuelle, a publication so widely read throughout France, it had come under scrutiny of by the crown. Despite censorship laws having been relaxed in recent years, those who insulted the King and Court in print publications were frequently fined and jailed, if they were lucky. Honore, with the full backing of his friend and publisher Charles Philipon, frequently created scathing caricatures that directly insulted the king and court and society in general by turns.

This example of his work, titled “Gargantua”, published in 1831, shows the King consuming the wealth of the working people of France while pooping out useless paperwork.

Daumier was slapped with a heavy fine and spent 6 months in prison for this cartoon caricature. His editor Philipon was given a much longer sentence. It was during this time when his friend and editor was still incarcerated that Honore would create his most famous work.

I will tell you the story now as my teacher told it to us in class.

In the predawn hours of April 15th 1834 a legion of French troops had been sent to suppress an ongoing protest going on outside of a silk factory in Lyons, a small town outside of Paris. The workers had been protesting for safer working conditions but unrest of any kind, especially outside of Paris made the crown nervous.

It was in the predawn hours when the troops of soldiers were waiting on a bridge near the factory when a shot rang out and one soldier fell dead, a single bullet wound to his head. There is no other way to describe what happened next; the rest of the soldiers went insane.

They thought the sniper style shot came from the apartment complex across the street where many of the factory workers and protesters lived. They went into the apartment complex and went on a massacre. In these predawn hours most people were still asleep. Bursting through apartment doors, they killed the residences of this apartment complex, annihilating whole families in their beds.

Some who were awakened by the pounding and screams fled in every direction, still in their nightclothes.

Honore Daumier had just arrived at his little print shop and was preparing for another day of subversive humor when he saw a stream of people running from the street still in their nightclothes. He stopped one person who told him of the ongoing massacre at the Rue Transnonain.

He grabbed his sketchbook and pencil and ran towards the danger. He sketched what he said he saw that morning and ran back to his print shop where he created what would become his most famous work.

Titled simply, “Rue Transnonain April 15th 1834”, the lithographic print was accompanied by an article of his account of the massacre. He made hundreds of these pamphlets that morning. There is no other way to describe how it was received except to say that the article and accompanying illustration, “went viral”.

Street-fights between the authorities and rioters were nothing new in France but that peoples homes were invaded; that families were killed in their beds was beyond the pale for the French people.

By the end of the day the news within the illustrated pamphlet had spread throughout France. When it was shown to King Phillip, it is said he, “shook with fear”. He sent soldiers throughout the country to confiscate every copy of this pamphlet they could find. The only reason we have copies of Daumier’s great work is because so many people hid their copies from the authorities and spread the word themselves of what the Kings men had done. Daumier had to go on the run for awhile after this came out. King Phillip and the reigning govt. put even more restrictions on the press and what they were allowed to report on, but all of it backfired. Later that same year another revolt broke out in France and it was the bloodiest one yet, one of the major inner city battles later memorialized in Victor Hugo’s’ classic work, Le Miserable.

So why am I telling you this story?

Because I want you to see the parallels between government censorship then and now. When those in power suppress free speech, especially to cover up for their own evils or incompetence, it never ends well; it never works. People cannot truly LIVE in a repressed society.

Like sand from a fist, the truth will get out. In the case of Daumier’s work, it was the people, not the publishers who made sure the word spread of what had happened that terrible morning.

So it is in the here and now.

I am the one telling you about active suppression of anyone who disagrees with the reigning politically motivated covid narrative, not any reporter or news channel.

I’m telling you so you know what is happening to doctors and other professionals who are daring to stand up for their scientifically based beliefs.

Whether you agree with them or not these people and others like them have the right to their opinions and to make their own life choices.

“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.”

– Beatrice Evelyn Hall in her biography on French author, Voltaire.

Freedom of speech is so inherent a need to us humans, the lack of it eventually leads to either mass death or mass revolt.

Personally I don’t like either option.

I’d rather just keep my freedom of speech.

I’d rather the Government and Technogarchs and Covid police just leave me alone.

But I know they won’t.

So I’m here writing this little blog post saying what I agree with medically and politically and wondering, what will become of this?

What will become of me and those who believe as I do?

I don’t know the answer to these questions but I am choosing to trust God with my future.

Be strong everyone and don’t be afraid to speak the truth, for the Lord is with us wherever we go.

This article is a reprint, originally published on my other site Aug 31, 2021

Citation-

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.809


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