A Dialogue Between Bismarck And Talleyrand On Our Near Future

The man stood in the crisp winter air, wearing a military tunic of the Prussian tradition.

A single snowflake gently floated down from the sky and landed on his polished boot.

He stood outside the tavern gazing at the rectangular windows — each flanked by a worn timber shutter.

The where was Strassbourg city of Alsace — in either France or Germany, depending on when exactly the man was standing there. The when was somewhere in the near future though — for they’d agreed to meet in the 2020s.

He walked up the two steps, pulled open the door toward him, and stepped inside.

His body felt the warm embrace by the heated air within. Mild music was playing in the background — an operatic piece, without the singer.

He looked over to the bar and saw his would-be companion sitting there. He walked toward him and took a seat to his companion’s right.

“Otto” said the seated man.

“Charles” said Otto.

Talleyrand: “So what do you make of things?”

Bismarck: “Things? As in the world?”

Talleyrand: “Yes.”

Bismarck: “People never lie so much as before an election, during a war, or after a referendum”

Talleyrand: “Perhaps…but society is divided into two classes: the shearers and the shorn. It seems that for the first time in 200 years, the latter are finally wrestling control back from the former”.

Bismarck: “The great questions of the day — be it climate change or technological supremacy — will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by economics and blood”

Talleyrand: “But who will lead society through it? The art of statesmanship is to foresee the inevitable and to expedite its occurrence, but the Politicians of the day are systematically cultivating hatred and distrust. Without a free and trusted press, there can be no representative government.”

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