Categories: uncategorized
Date: 12 January 2006 10:36:24
I had a run in with the French Foreign Legion.
I don't know if it was just my upbringing, or if the same is true for everybody, but the foreign legion is a hugely evocative and romantic concept. I remember the toy soldiers with their funny hats that had to be painted white, and the stories that my mum would tell me of people who had behaved so badly that they really ought to go and join the legion. (Presumably this was meant as punishment but if so, why make the legion out to be so romantic? I wonder how many people did despicable things just so they could go and join it.)
I was on the early morning train from Toulouse to Montpelier, gently easing between wakefulness and sleep, as we pulled into Carcassonne. There the platform was filled with these white hats. Having never seen them in the flesh before it had something of a dream-like feel to it. Was I awake, or was I dreaming this? To add to the dream-like predictability, they all sat down in my carriage, filling every available seat.
I spent the rest of the journey looking around at their faces. The romantic in me wanted to believe that each face hid a dark story of a life gone wrong that had led them there. Of course that's crazy, but the fact remains - what would drive you to go and join an army of a country that's not even your own?
That touches on the other point. The legion is famous for its fierce discipline. It was obvious who the boss was (he gets to wear a hat that is the same shape but not the same impractical colour) although he didn't say a word. But it was clear that all the legionnaires were attentive to every facial twitch, every muscle he moved. If he wanted one of them to move seats, he did little more than move his eyes, and it happened. If one were looking too relaxed, it took only the slightest glance for the culprit to straighten up. As discipline goes it was impressive. As a way of relating to your fellow humans, it was not pretty. What would drive you to subject yourself to that?
I suppose the legion is something of a secular monastery - joining up is a way of escaping the cares and troubles of everyday life. And where a monastery has God and love, the legion has Patriotism and fear - not the same at all, but they approximately fill the same holes in human hearts.
As you can tell, I wasn't planning on joining up any time soon.