De Gaulle vs. Pétain legality
example · history ·
retold in 3 talks
Žižek argues that de Gaulle's call to armed resistance against Vichy France was entirely illegal and that Pétain had the democratic majority behind him, yet de Gaulle was right. This illustrates that there are situations where supporting an illegal, minority political-military action against a legal, popularly supported government is justified.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“from a legal standpoint Maréchal Pétain was… elected by the majority… but I think de Gaulle did the right thing”
“General de Gaulle. Every history of France tells you... Pétain was legitimately nominated the ruler of France and undoubtedly communists admit this... what General de Gaulle did absolutely was not democratically legitimized”
“the Pétain government was fully democratically legitimized... Who is de Gaulle? It's like wild military force opposing a democratically justified government.”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 1 jobsuses
courage of hopelessness
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Beppe Grillo1Myers (B.R. Myers)1Milton Friedman1Santiago Zabala1Gerhard Richter (philosopher)1Andreas Huyssen1Gregory Bateson1Homi Jehangir Bhabha2
alongside works
Every retelling 3
Žižek argues that de Gaulle's call to armed resistance against Vichy France was entirely illegal and that Pétain had the democratic majority behind him, yet de Gaulle was right. This illustrates that there are situations where supporting an illegal, minority political-military action against a legal, popularly supported government is justified., illustrating revolutionary violence,legality vs. legitimacy,the courage of hopelessness
Žižek uses de Gaulle to show that democratic legitimacy is not always on the side of liberation: Pétain was democratically nominated, de Gaulle had zero democratic legitimacy, yet Žižek is on de Gaulle's side., illustrating democracy,revolution-violence,legitimacy
De Gaulle unified France by starting from a tiny, apparently crazy minority position, opposing French forces and defying the democratically legitimized Pétain government. Žižek uses this to argue that authentic unity only emerges from an initial act of division., illustrating authentic unity comes from division,political organization,democratic legitimacy