33) Marquis de Sade and submissiveness Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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Marquis de Sade and submissiveness In our thoughts, Sade is almost irrevocably linked to the word sadism and his works about sexual orgies. If someone writes something and is misunderstood by readers, that must be emphasized in defense of the reader, is not always only the mistake of the reader, but can also be that of the writer. Why didn't he express himself more clearly? Or maybe he wanted to hide a bit what he had to say? He said in his book "Justine": The member of an upper social class will never apologize to a member of a lower social class because the member of the lower social class would simply not understand it." So far de Sade. What did he want to say? Very easy. Let's imagine that God would tell his believers that he made a mistake! How would his believers respond? Of course, they wouldn't understand that because God is said to be infallible. And the same was true for the king and nobles in Marquis' time. A few more examples: When the first whites invaded different parts of Black Africa, the natives met them as if the intruders were gods, threw themselves on the ground in front of them, their forehead touched the ground and then they took the white man's foot and placed it on their heads. How would the Africans have reacted if the white man had not accepted this submission? When I was traveling in northern Africa myself, small children came and kissed my hand like a lord. How should I have reacted to this when I was 23? How should one respond to self-imposed submission? For the Egyptians at the time of the Pharaohs life ended the moment the demigod had died. The king of a tribe of black Africans sold his subjects to other black or white slave traders for a few cheap glass pearls. For the poor slave, the right to decide about life and death now passed on to the new master. He was committed to him. Sade himself was a nobleman and, as an educated man, had probably long been concerned with the question of where the limit of this right was. It was the time of Enlightenment and the French Revolution. New questions had arisen about human dignity. In a strange way he made fun of the old regime (of the French kings), which I must admit, is not entirely understandable to us. Back to list!

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