The state department diplomats. Not as a noun, as a verb.
Okay look I won’t pretend in the slightest that I know what I am writing about. Let’s get that out of the way first. I don’t need your rather urgent thoughts telling me “you have no idea what you’ve done or you don’t know what the hell you’re actually saying.” I am quite aware that I am clueless. That self awareness is probably my saving grace. I write like a bumbling fool in a tragic-comedy might write, for your entertainment. I am also aware that the prior sentence is an oxymoron. And a simile. And a metaphor of sorts.
What do I know of diplomacy or diplomats? Nothing, nada, zero, zip. I know they are or might be liaisons to the Agency. They are both the official and unofficial parts of the Empire. And they are typically recruited from Ivy Leagues. They are also financial liaisons to the City and New York. They have enormous power and can also via their head send arms and armaments to needy countries without approval of Congress. Yet I am also certain that barely scratches the surface of their capabilities. Their vocabularies are probably unique. Words chosen carefully and placed into conversations with apropos delivery. The host country, who heads have often gone to school in the institutes of the Empire fully understand what they say with their words, body and eyes and the graceful bobble of the head in peculiar ways at certain times within the conversation. Meaning imputed, meaning conveyed, the word God has to never enter the conversation. That’s how I presume the machinery of Empire runs. Smoothly without a hitch.
After the retire, they often go into the finance industry or lead Export Import Banks or banks that are US Government’s on paper but no one knows what they do. Now clearly not all diplomats are so fortunate, some have to run drugs and arms to fund wars worldwide. That’s a side hustle typically. That’s what I have heard or seen in movies and stuff. Is it true? Probably not. Yet if they read this, they would instantly form an opinion of me would they not? Without meeting me, without a conversation, it would be an instant write-off. Bugger has no idea what he’s saying. Bloody hell, what utter rubbish is this? Mate, do you fancy a drink later? Yeah sure. Why not?
Anyway, here’s a series of definitions dug up from an old William Safire article that I dug up yesterday. I just had the feeling in the pit of my stomach that today I’d be writing about diplomats. And here we are.
Diplomat, like diploma, originated in the Greek for “folded document, a passport” and was taken up by the French diplomatique as “one dealing in the documents of international affairs.” A diplomat adept at strategy-speak is elevated to the unofficial rank of diplomatist. And so ends this second tranche of today’s communiqué.
That would explain the title. In case it is still not clear, I am saying that the state department has folded. The current Administration seems to have beat it into submission according to this FT article. Ambassador positions worldwide are going unfilled.
The other definitions courtesy of Mr. Safire are as follows:
Lèse-majesté began in French as a crime of treason, but has been Anglicized to mean an offense to the rights of the common people or an outrage to the dignity of their representatives, as in a tinpot dictator’s keeping a secretary of state cooling heels in a Syrian waiting room.
The People could say to any Administration: we think you have lese-majeste our honor. I say honor because The People never truly have any rights.
But wait, there’s more.
Entente cordiale, a “friendly understanding” not encumbered by treaty complications, but which requires constant tending by world-traveling summiteers: “See your ententist twice a year.”
World-traveling summiteers, please don’t diplomat like Mr. Graham. Sorry… too soon?
Cordon sanitaire, originally a quarantine barrier, then a series of buffer states surrounding a threatening power, is seen by today’s Putinists as a NATO plot to enlist Georgia and Ukraine in squeezing Russia, which Hillaplomacy may seek to overcome with an . . .
ententist?
I am guessing that’s what Safire had in mind. The article was published on February 24 2009. Amazing how relevant it is today eh?
Force majeure, which is an unexpected and overwhelming happening. It is a term rooted in French commercial law and is now found in phrases as varied as an “act of God” or an “act of terrorism.”
That’s the other Horatio Gates joke, he resigned his majeure rank. Sold it for a few quid enough to buy a plantation. Plants were presumably amicable in Virginia.
Rapprochement, found in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, has a nice meaning of “a bringing together” for a beginning or resumption of harmonious relations. There may be a connection with “approach,” of which we can expect many unless interrupted by a . . .
“A revolution?”
Détente is “a relaxation or unbending” rooted in tendre, “to stretch,” and was used in diplomacy to promote a lessening of tensions; it is now too closely associated with the Nixon-Kissinger era for use in a time of fresh change. Démarche, however — a “step” or diplomatic initiative — is a word likely to be embraced in a new administration, especially since the once-voguish initiativehas had such a long run.
At ease sailor and march. Both. At once. Detente and Demarche and don’t worry about a rapprochement or a force majeure cause if nothing works then we can always cordon sanitaire the whole place.
Safire did have a peculiar sense of humor.
C’est la vie or c’est la tranche de vie? That is the question du jour.
Nay! question of the hour.
Revolutionary breakfast recommendation: a tranche de bread avec avocado with cucumbers and tomatoes.
