Something is stirring. In WhatsApp groups and Westminster pubs, wherever wonks, spads, and other SW1 types gather, there’s a name on everybody’s lips. It’s like John Galt in Atlas Shrugged or Tyler Durden in Fight Club. It’s at once a wail of despair and a call to arms. Who is this man they whisper of? Who is “Nicolas (30 ans)”?
The hard-done-by in society, on this increasingly popular account, are not Barbour-wearing farmers
“Nicolas (30 ans)” is the protagonist of “Le contrat social”, a meme posted onto Twitter, as it then was, in April 2020. It was popularised by a French account which goes by the nom de plume Bouli, after an obscure children’s TV show about a friendly snowman. Bouli’s Nicolas is smartly dressed; he once would have been called a Yuppie. But Yuppies don’t exist anymore and Nicolas holds his head in his hands.
Why is Nicolas depressed? Society is rigged against him; he’s squeezed for all he’s worth.
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