Versailles Was Actually Disgusting

    Many times, people are deceived by glamour.  Instead of heeding their "inner voices of wisdom", they contort themselves to suffer for glamour.  

     Versailles had gorgeous architecture but was a diseased and unhygienic place.  Its creator, King Louis XIV, disliked bathing, so all of his minions mimicked that filthy practice, making them dirtier than the Middle Ages.  Every few weeks, the King preferred to have leaches chew open his flesh and supposedly suck “impurities” from his body, rather than take a bath.  They masked their “reign of filth” with wigs, face powder, wig powder, astringents, and toxic potions—all peddled by farcical doctors and retailers.  As the noxious powders and creams infected their eyes and skin, they obstinately continued to use them.  Such imbecilic “leaders of the nation” masked their eroding flesh and pockmarks with faux birthmarks and more harmful powder.  As their teeth fell out, they stuffed wads in the vacancies to keep their cheeks from leaning in.  Their unwashed hair fell out, so they covered their heads with wigs, which got infested with insects and parasites.  Coupled with suffocation from the wigs, the parasites ruined their scalps.  

     Karmically, in 1685—at 47-years-old—the cruel King lost his teeth, and part of his upper palate fell out, causing puss to continually form in his mouth.  In 1696, the King suffered an anthrax attack on his neck, as a result of his over-powdered wig.  He lived until the age of 76 with those tortuous aliments.  Pigheaded, they gluttonously overstuffed their bellies and let their bodies disintegrate.  Versailles’ 4,000 residents did not care about human waste either: servants dumped bedpans out the windows, courtiers relieved themselves behind stairs, and all types of men urinated against walls.  Lacking decent plumbing, the underground sewage pits overflowed—infusing the palatial complex with a hideous stench… and inviting vermin and disease.  It was a thorough ruination of the aristocracy that was greedy/needy enough to forgo their estates to live in closet-size apartments at Versailles… which had been the King’s motive.

     You understand the point.  I don't need to illustrate their suffocating etiquette, ridiculous rituals, lack of privacy, bloated budgets, food waste, and disdain of taxpayers.  In this new year--full of optical puns of 20-20 vision--use clarity to improve your choices.