Benjamen Walker's Theory of Everything - revolutionary slogans will be written by the winners

Episode Date: August 25, 2016

As the 2016 American presidential election heads into the final round – we are featuring a story your host stumbled upon during the last election in October of 2102. Radio producer Silvain Gire tells us about an impossible encounter between Mitt Romney and Guy Debord in Paris 1968.   *** Benjamen Walker will join Silvain Gire to talk radio and podcasts at  La Maison de Poésie September 11th 2016. details

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Episodes every other week at neverpo.st and wherever you find pods. This installment is called Revolutionary Slogans will be written by the winners. We're heading into the final round of the 2016 presidential election. As I record this, it's August, but I'm already eagerly anticipating the surprise we are guaranteed to get this October. I mean, what else could possibly happen? So, as we wait, I thought I'd share with you a surprising story I stumbled upon during the last election in October of 2012. I met this radio producer, Sylvain Gyr in France, who told me about an encounter the then-Republican candidate Mitt Romney had had in Paris in 1968. All young Mormon men are required to go on an overseas mission when they turn 18.

And Mitt Romney was no exception. And in 1968, he went to France. What happened was, is that Mitch Romney, as it's now well documented, was rejected. He would go door to door, as Mormon missionaries are supposed to do. People would slam the door to his face. That's Sylvain Gire, a French radio producer I met in Paris when I went to investigate Romney's French past. Sylvain Gire's mother, Madeleine, encountered Romney on the streets of Paris. And this encounter, Gire told me, brought Mitt Romney face to face with one of the leading revolutionaries of the 20th century, Guy Debord. This is the story that should have been the October surprise of October surprises.

Mithromne first was in Le Havre, in the coast, the northern coast of France, in Normandy, and then he was in Bordeaux. But in May 68, he was in Bordeaux, and he had to do, he had to accomplish a mission in Paris. But because of the general strike, he was unable to go back to Bordeaux. There was no gas in gas stations. The trains were not working.

There was a general strike. It is actually the biggest general strike in France's modern history. I think the number of people on strike is estimated between five to six millions, you know, that's about half of the working forces. But all France was on strike. It was not only a student's riot, as it is pictured now. It was a general worker's strike, together with students rioting and fighting with the police every night in the streets of Paris,

where the universities were. My mother was also forced to stay in Paris, but that was okay with her. And she met this young American kid. He was crying, he was afraid, he was far from home, you know, he was alone, he was frightened. But then my mother, because of her pro-American feelings, you know, though she was more liberal, but she had these strong American feelings. My mother would open the door to Americans and feed them. So hold on a second. Did he knock on the door, like telling her about the Mormon religion and then start crying?

What happened? I don't know. Maybe he was crying because of the tear gas. Maybe he was crying because he was far away from home, you know, kind of itty situation. I don't remember exactly the circumstances. Now, for what has happened between them, because obviously this is what you want to know, my mother would be very quiet and shy about that. What I can tell you is that at this time, she had a close relationship, as one would say,

with the famous radical thinker Guy Debord. The man who is now considered as the man who started May 68, who started the revolt. Now, Guy Debord, to put it briefly, is a radical thinker and avant-garde artist. He's the founder of the famous movement International Situationist, Situationist International, that then had branches in the US and everywhere in Europe. Now, he was obviously fighting the police every night with his friends.

But he was also, as it's been later known by his famous autobiography called Panégyrique in French, he was a drunk, okay? He was a heavy, heavy drinker. He would drink most of the time. So one night, Guy Debord is hiding from the police. He's been fighting them. He's run, you know,

he's chased by the police in the streets of Paris. He ends up in my mother, Madeleine's apartment. And this is where history collides in a most incredible way. Imagine that. You have this woman,

Madeleine, gorgeous woman, 30 years old, beautiful, good cook, nice, big heart. And then you have, on the left, this Guido Borg, radical think beautiful, good cook, nice, big heart. And then you have on the left, this guillotin radical thinker,

you know, many women at his feet, like the top of his generation. Brilliant guy. And you have this young kid, 19, 20 year old, this young American kid, Mitch Romney, a Mormon missionary. Can you imagine that? As the family story goes, my mother cooked for them. This is what you do in France. Anyway, you have people over, you cook.

She would start with a salad, then a vegetable soup, then probably a good piece of meat. But because of the strikes, there might be restrictions. But you have this thing in Lyon that you can do very good meal with a few things from scratch, you know, almost what's left over in the fridge. So she would cook for her, I mean, I think, lover, Guy Debord, and this young man, Mietromne.

Now, after dinner, I think they would have argued about the war in Vietnam and many things. And as the story goes, Guy triggered meat in this kind of drinking contest. Starting with wine. I think there were a few bottles of wine, you know, red wine from Burgundy, which has always been his favorite. Then moving along, you know, with Pastis, this terrible drink from Marseille that can drive people crazy.

Think of Pastis as the illegitimate heir of Absinthe, you know. And then through, like, country-owned preparation, you know, eau de vie, nul, that would be per spirit, you know, things like that, distilled alcohol, maybe whiskey, maybe vodka, at the point. It's difficult to make out. So why would Mitt Romney participate in this contest since, you know, he's a Mormon,

a young man who's never had a drop of alcohol in his life? Pour les beaux yeux de Madeleine, for the sweet eyes of my mother, Madeleine. I can't see any reasonable explanation other than this one. You know, this man is young, is, you know, he looks like, I mean, really, he's been drinking for months now, he started a revolution, he's really arrogant, as he always was. I mean, meat, in all his innocence,

you know, of a 20-year-old, thinks, I don't know, he would probably kind of what you guys call a jock at this point. He would say,

I'm going to win this thing. So he entered the drinking contest. Guido Boa, as you can read inegyric, there is a beautiful chapter. Everyone should read that because it's the most beautiful French language. I guess the English translation is beautiful too. Guido Boas can drink for months entirely in a row. So, I mean, at this point, he would outdrink anybody,

especially a 20-year-old Mormon who never drank a single drop of alcohol in his life. But there is another contest that took place, which is even more interesting, a competition between those two men about slogans. You remember that Guido Bor and the Situationists, in general, were famous for their slogans. Guy Debord would come up with Sous les pavés, la plage, under the stones, the sand, the sand is under the stones. Now, Guy Debord was always bragging about that because in the 50s, he already came up with a famous slogan, never work. So during the course of the evening,

Mitch Romney was kind of fed up with Guy going on and on about his slogans. I guess at this point, Mitch Romney is really drunk. So he goes in the street of Paris, he's drunk, he's angry, he's jealous, he wants to make a point. So he will fight the bar, slogan for slogan. And my mother can still remember some of the most beautiful slogans that Mitch Romney came up with on this night. There's get rich. There's conform, conform, conform. And also

as he was, you know, in this bath of French culture and poetry and alliteration, he would come up with beautiful things such as prophet, profit, you know, prophet and profits. My mother doesn't remember exactly the saying, but that goes like that, you know,

prophet and profits. Very good one. So, obviously, what should happen, happen, is that Mitromne lost this competition. You know, he's absolutely too drunk. He can't make it. He can't stand it. I think he pukes all over the place. It's a terrible mess. He ends up sleeping on a couch.

And my mother always gets bored. The following day, guilt kicks in. Obviously, guilt kicks in. He's in a bad state. He doesn't want to look anybody in the eyes. He just gets up, gets dressed and leaves. And there, in the street of Paris, are his slogans. Imagine that.

It's Paris, May 68, the early hours. The smell of tear gas lingering in the streets. Barricades everywhere. The streets are empty and deserted. And this young man, you know, is stumbling through the street, but at the same time, everywhere he looks, in the neighborhood, in like four or five streets around my mother's place, he can see his slogans.

He can see his writings on the wall. Get rich. Conform. Profits. Profit. I mean, that must have been such an encouragement for him, you know. That must have been terribly uplifting for this young man. Maybe at this moment he realized that one day

his name would be on the wall or in the sky. You have been listening to Benjamin Walker's Theory of Everything. This installment is called Revolutionary Slogans Will Be Written by the Winners. This episode was produced by myself, Benjamin Walker, and it featured Sylvain Gilles. If you're in Paris on the night of September 11th, 2016, the two of us will be talking about radio and podcasts together at the Museum of Poetry. You can find a link to that at toe.prx.org. The Theory of Everything is a proud member of Radiotopia, home to the world's best podcasts. Special thanks to all of our launch sponsors, MailChimp, The Knight Foundation, and listeners like you.

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