Monsters Inc Circa 1940

'When the French government [of 1939/40] discovered a welcome diversion for the general discontent by exploiting people's natural  hostility to foreigners, and appealing to their pogrom instincts, they merely followed and ancient recipe; the sacrifice of scapegoats is an old established institution. Up-to -date rulers however want something more spectacular than a goat: they need at least a dragon. Hitler had invented the first composite super-dragon called the Judeo-Liberal--Stalin-Rothschild-World Conspiracy. Stalin followed with the Trotsky-Menshevik-Imperialist-Well poisoning-Crop destroying-Fire spitting-Monster dragon. One of the advantages of the modern dragon over the antiquated goat was that the it received one deadly blow after another, but never died, and when slightly tickled in the solar plexus at once regained it's menacing ferocity, thus allowing the modern St George to continue to fight over an unlimited number of  rounds. Another of it's advantages is that the dragon can be re-baptised, consisted so to speak of interchangeable parts. Thus in Hitler's dragon the vital organ called 'Bolshevism' was replaced 'Capitalism' and in Stalin's dragon 'Fascism' by 'Pluto-Democracy' without the least weakening of the effect.

The French dragon, of course, was less ambitious and of a poorish aspect. They could not paint on it the genuinely scary features of 'Dictatorship', 'Persecution'  and 'Tyranny' lest the real little dragons beyond the Pyrenees and Alps should recognise their own portraits and be offended.They painted it [Communist] red but this somehow missed the point, as the enemy happened to be [Fascist] brown. Sot they had to stuff it with all sorts of old rags and trash, Prussian boots and Hun caricatures and sauerkraut and Nietzsche; It's only impressive feature, the piece de resistance so to speak, were the meteques. It was not a very splendid dragon, yet goood enough to stage a fight in a Punch and Judy show and to receive some thudding whacks amid general applause'

-Arthur Koesler from page 90/91 of his first book, 'Scum of The Earth', first published by Cape in 1941. It is about life in wartime in France and all the uncertainties thereof. I recommend it as a good read.