Imperial Purple by H. L. Mencken

Imperial Purple by H. L. Mencken

 

First of all, I did not find any Imperial Purple under H.L. Mencken on goodreads.

What one is supposed to do, is add the title, which I did a couple of times and will again for the works of www.realini.blogspot.ro , I mean myself.

The funny thing may be that Bluebeard’s Goat and the other stories might not include Imperial Purple, but it feels awkward to add a title, without a cover picture and more of the details required on the site. Let someone else do this job. When I added a short story of Tolstoy, I had the feeling I should write more about it and was reprimanded for not including a spoiler alert. But what a joy it was to see that someone had read my lines.

Imperial Purple is hilarious. We learn some funny aspects in the life of presidents that I can only presume are correct. The suggestion to hand them once they become ex”, seems a bit cruel, but must be taken in the context of a satirical, comedy piece.

Coolidge I think is the one who invites guests and goes down on the boat to sleep. This is the thing he does when he has boring or obnoxious guests.

We tend to envy those at the very top. But in many cases I think it is a misplaced attitude. We better look at Buddhist monks and wish we had their serenity and real high. <Mencken makes a point in this funny, yet meaningful story.

Presidents and those associated with Imperial power and the color Purple, have to meet all kinds of people, many unbearable and do things which we would hate to do.

If we look at the news, we see a multitude of “world leaders” who have little to show in terms of IQ, EQ and skills. At one extreme we have the leaders of North Korea, China and Russia, for who I have very little regard, if not worse. But they represent systems with varying degrees of dictatorship, with the exception of Russia, where a huge, 97% majority endorses the actions of Putin in and around the Ukraine.

Even leaders in respected democracies have astonishing flaws. Berlusconi is serving some community sentence, which were it not for his age, would be time in prison. He had bunga-bunga parties with underage prostitutes, bribes, monopolized, kept Angela Merkel waiting and much more.

Angela Merkel, the leader of Germany and Europe seems to be ok, but she fails to rise up to a respectable standard by excessive timidity in promoting reforms in her own country, while pressing others and she is extremely boring. Her competitor in the elections poked fun at her, using her speech techniques: “we need a solid basis for the strong foundation of…”

Ed Miliband of Britain is weird.

Francois Hollande had a long affair with his rival in the Socialist Party; they had four (or three?) children and never married. When he won the elections, after DSK had been caught cheating in a hotel in New York with a maid, Hollande brought his new girlfriend at the Elysee, with an official entourage, supported by taxpayers. The “First Girlfriend” of France was cheated on, and Hollande was photographed in a ridiculous posture, sneaking off on a scooter, from his new misstress’apartment. The “First Girlfriend”went on to smash things at the Elysee Palace, worth lots of money.

Around the world we have nut cases, weirdos or pathological cases like Maduro of Venezuela, Fernandez of Argentina, and Zuma of South Africa would be convicted in a real democracy, or any case dismissed.

 

It seems reality can be as baffling and humorous as the Imperial Purple.