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Validity and Invalidity in The Count of Monte Cristo
The Fiction of Financial Legitimacy
I read the Count of Monte Cristo over the course of a year back in 2022. I enjoyed it, some parts more than others, but there were some aspects that have really stuck with me. But it wasn’t the main plot of the book. It’s a big book where a lot happens so there’s plenty to sink your teeth into besides Dante’s quest for revenge. Which, for me at least, was a good thing because I’m not a fan of stories about revenge. They tend to be about people using violence for vindictive ends and portraying it as ‘justice’.
I was a kid when I heard the old adage that “an eye for an eye and we would all be blind”, and I’ve never disagreed with it. There was another saying I heard in James Bond that “when embarking on revenge you must first dig two graves” which also spelled out to me the futility of revenge. As someone who got beaten up as a kid I’ve always known that violence is cyclical, and though it is sometimes necessary, it is (in my humble opinion) an option of last resort. This belief is unpopular today.
With impassioned arguments to continue militarising police forces to violently suppress protest, endless billions funnelled into ceaseless wars or to maintain genocidal regimes, and pop culture bloated with righteous, flag waving ‘heroes’ murdering or…