Searching for Place de la Concorde
I walk through the Tuileries Garden on a sunny Sunday morning in Paris with all the celebratory marble gods and generals along the broad path, with flowers and children and families, with the Musée de l’Orangerie and Musée du Louvre nearby and the Place de la Concorde (Harmony Square) ahead.
The 19-acre Place de la Concorde is the largest public square in Paris with the majestic Luxor Obelisk at its center and a view of the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower in the distance and statues of Hercules, Caesar, Theseus Fighting the Minotaur, Artemis with a Doe, A Tigress Carrying a Peacock and many other figures filling the landscape. The fountains and ponds sparkle in the sun which shines on these relics of a fraught and troubled history that has now settled into a sightseers’ bonanza.
On this very ground a mere 232 years ago were the public executions by guillotine of King Louis XVI, Queen Marie Antoinette, and eventually of Maximilien Robespierre, along with a thousand more during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror in 1793-1794. The square was named Place de la Révolution at the time, but after the revolution, as a gesture of reconciliation, its current moniker was adopted. Surrounding Place de la Concorde are now luxury hotels and buildings of state.
From this majestic city with its history now enshrined as tourist attractions, I move on to Amman, Jordan where I join others in a fact-finding, listening journey with the International Crisis Group into the unsettled situation in the nearby countries of the region. Here history harks back many millennia, all the way to the Bronze Age and to places like the ruins of Jerash which remind current tourists, of which there are fewer these days, of the fleeting notions of time and politics. Unfortunately, the latter has a grip on the region that seems difficult to loosen and resolve.
Our discussions with former ministers and current journalists and scholars fixed on the seemingly intractable struggle between Israel and the Palestinians, with an additional focus on the future of Syria. There are glimmers of hope in the talks, but these are few and just bare glimmers, though one grasps onto them and probes how they might be developed and expanded to light a path forward.
This blog is not sufficient for that fuller discussion except to note that as one observes and walks through history, the path does at times open in unexpected ways, though often there is brutal conflict before that opening occurs. Everyone we meet with is still talking and looking for a way to find that path.
Back in the U.S. where I live in Washington, DC, the body politic is in its own struggle and is as stirred and upended as I can remember in my lifetime. Protests and court challenges unfold weekly, if not daily, in the concern that an authoritarian wind is sweeping though with actions taken outside of legal bounds.
My few weeks away put in some perspective the fraught history that has come before and emphasizes that Place de la Concord (Harmony Square) cannot be taken for granted.
Conflicting and opposing views of citizens and leaders have always challenged, but over time societies have found that through compromise, institutions, laws, respect for fellow citizens they can progress and find a way to exist in spite of differences and even advance because of these. Retribution is not an engine for a just and fair society. Respect for the individual and for the law allows differences to resolve and dissent to breathe and disagreements to resolve nonviolently.
Concerned about how to respond and speak up to the rapid and often seemingly illegal changes taking place, one friend who has lived in the political arena most of her life took a small step of her own. She ordered paperback copies of the U.S. Constitution then created and ordered red, white, and blue rubber bracelets that say: “Defend and Honor Your Constitution.” She carries these with her for any political discussion or debates which erupt; there are more and more these days. Trying not to get swept up in the rancor of the moment, she quietly hands out the Constitution, urging her fellow citizens to read and remember the provisions of this document which has been a model for the world over, then she hands out a bracelet. I’ve been wearing my bracelet ever since.
“…Under the empires of old, the strong did what they willed and the weak suffered what they must.
But over the centuries, people built the sinews of civilization: Constitutions to restrain power, international alliances to promote peace, legal systems to peacefully settle disputes, scientific institutions to cure disease, news outlets to advance public understanding, charitable organizations to ease suffering, businesses to build wealth and spread prosperity, and universities to preserve, transmit and advance the glories of our way of life. These institutions make our lives sweet, loving and creative, rather than nasty, brutish and short….”
—David Brooks, Column in New York Times, April 17, 2025
NYT Article by Ryan Holiday, April 21, 2025:
The Naval Academy Canceled My Lecture on Wisdom
How a lecture to the U.S. Naval Academy on censorship was censored.