Aprés nous, le déluge

A sentence that I have been hearing my grandmother say as long as I can remember. According to her it is not decent to say, but let’s be honest, is this not how a big part of the Western World thinks on how we take care of this planet? Originally it is a French expression, attributed to Madame de Pompadour during the Battle of Rossbach, which was disastrous for the French. There are two possible interpretations to this archaic statement, one “after my reign, the nation will be plunged into chaos and destruction”; or “After me, let the deluge come”.