Incompetency of the privileged class creates monsters

Napoleon entered the Royal Military Academy in Brienne, France at the age of 10. Joining the academy was like a miracle to Napoleon. At that time, France expanded free education for the children of poor aristocrats due to the decline of the French nobility. The Brienne military academy was one of them. The academy had a high acceptance rate due to an increase in the number of poor aristocrats. Although Napoleon was not entitled to enter the academy since he was a Corsican, he was awarded a scholarship to the Brienne military academy with the help of the governor of Corsica. It was influence-peddling of the aristocracy that made Napoleon a soldier.

Although Napoleon was good at math at the academy, there was no genius in him. His performance as a commissioned officer could not be judged. With all his excuses, he left the army and went back to Corsica. His performance there was far from impressive either. He almost lost his life due to his wild ambition.

Barely escaping Corsica alive, Napoleon became a totally different person. Judging from the evidence, it is clear that his experience of leaving the army and what happened in Corsica changed who he was. The revelation came to him because of the poor officer management system of France. The French army must have been the only one to give soldiers paid leave for a year without any reason. Napoleon left his appointed place of duty and experienced revolution, frustration, and change on the road.

Napoleon’s tactics were not his own creation. It was to France’s credit that Napoleon realized the importance of artillery units and nurtured Europe’s best artillery unit and officers. Before the revolution broke out, noble officers neither managed nor nurtured their important assets. As a result, their assets were handed over to a young man from Corsica.

One’s social status falls not because they do not have assets but because they do not know how to use them. The reason is very simple. They do not want to share their assets nor reveal their incompetency. The more incompetent a group is, the higher they put up a fence, arming themselves with their own logic. They do not know they are sowing the seeds of their own destruction with their incompetency and corruption.