Illness in the Temple

Both of Marie-Antoinette's children fell sick while in the Temple prison. From Vive la Reine:

Madame Royale treated by the physician Brunier on January 24th, 1793 by Jean-Baptiste Mallet Grasse (1759-1835). [source: Artcurial, via Auction.fr]
 
This painting depicts the physician who was allowed to come into the Temple and treat Madame Royale, who became ill in the days following her father’s execution.

But nothing was able to calm the anguish of my mother–we could make no hope of any sort enter her heart; she was indifferent whether she lived or died. She looked at us sometimes with a pity that made us shudder. Happily, grief increased my illness, and that occupied her. My own doctor, Brunier, and the surgeon La Caze were brought, and they cured me in a month.

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When a Nation Loses Its Moral Language

 From Unlicensed Punditry:

In nearly every nation surveyed, large majorities said their fellow citizens were good people. They might complain about politicians or corruption, but they still believed the average person around them was fundamentally decent.

Except in the United States.

In America, the survey found that a majority of respondents believed their fellow citizens were morally bad rather than morally good. The most common explanation offered is political polarization and there is certainly some truth to that explanation. Our politics have become increasingly hostile, and the language used to describe opponents often sounds less like disagreement and more like moral condemnation. Political arguments are increasingly framed as battles between good people and bad people, but the deeper problem may not be that Americans have suddenly become less moral than people in other countries. It may be something more basic: Americans increasingly disagree about what morality even means.

Words like “good” and “bad” sound simple, but they are not. Their meaning depends on the moral framework someone is using. For most of American history, that framework was broadly shared. Even people who were not personally religious lived within a culture shaped by religious assumptions about right and wrong. Ideas such as honesty, responsibility, loyalty, charity, and restraint formed a common vocabulary of morality.

Americans argued constantly about policy, but they were generally speaking the same moral language when they did so.

Over the past several decades, that shared framework has weakened. Religious affiliation has declined, church attendance has fallen, and the number of Americans who identify with no religious tradition has grown steadily. As those institutions faded, the common moral vocabulary that accompanied them faded as well.

In its place, several competing moral systems have taken root. (Read more.)

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Affirmation of Joy

 From Word on Fire:

Such gentle beauty and light stand as a bulwark against final despair. Sam is in a bad spot, and it seems to him that all hope has gone. Nevertheless, he does not despair, “though here at journey’s end I lie / in darkness buried deep.” He thinks he has reached the bitter end of his journey, and he has been unable to save Frodo. Even so, the words that come unbidden to him affirm a power greater than the darkness and evil that surround him. There is something beyond the evil that oppresses and seeks mastery. “Beyond all towers strong and high, / beyond all mountains steep, / above all shadows rides the Sun / and Stars for ever dwell,” he says. The sun and stars are not held captive by the artifacts of instrumentalized reason, for they are beyond and so greater than all such products of war. Indeed, the sun and stars are “above all shadows” whatsoever, and untouched by them. For this reason, although Sam thinks he is going to die, he will not despair: “I will not say the Day is done, / nor bid the Stars farewell.”

Sam’s song affirms a primordial light and beauty that no shadow, no matter how powerful and complete it may seem, can touch. In this way, the sorrow and grief that seem so absolute are relativized against the backdrop of an ever-greater goodness and beauty. Even though it seems certain that he himself will perish, a final despair is not Sam’s decision to make. Miraculously, he does not perish, for Frodo hears him singing, and the two are reunited and able to escape the tower. 

“Dover Beach” and “In Western Lands Beneath the Sun” offer two distinct ways to look upon the world. Arnold looks out upon the beauty of the world and concludes to its irrationality. Sam looks upon the darkness and shadows that surround him and sees beyond them a light and beauty untouched by any passing shadow. In this way, Sam Gamgee affirms what Arnold, in “Dover Beach,” denies. (Read more.)

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Wanted: An Ideal American Childhood

 

From Matriarch Goals:

This first generation of culture-rebel parents in the 70s-80s maintained a kind of libertarian philosophy of raising children. The main objective was getting kids out of the primary, popular culture. A rugged, denim-jumper individualism, if you will: Keep the children clear of corruption, and save their souls. For many devout Christians at that time, America’s embrace of abortion, contraception, homosexual lifestyles, and modern education curricula presented a five-alarm fire. They prioritized getting the hell away from it.

Courting the Village

Their children—my peers—grew up and tried to correct some of the downsides of their parents’ cultural rebellion: instead of isolation, they were more likely to seek out community and homeschool groups in order to mirror or even replace the popular culture they still rejected. What that first homeschooling generation learned through experience was that kids can’t really be raised without a larger culture—without a village. It doesn’t matter how much the parents try to provide a home culture, and it doesn’t matter how ideal the home life is.

There is a distinct and necessary third level between home and “the world.” That third place (heh) is the village or the group of families we raise our children in and among. That village is composed of other adults who are given nearly equal respect and deference as the child’s own parents. (Read more.)

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Parliamentary Debate on Far-Left Violence

 From Hélène de Lauzun at The European Conservative:

The murder of the young nationalist activist Quentin Deranque in Lyon in February  highlighted the presence of extreme left-wing violence in European societies—tolerated, if not encouraged, by some politicians and the media. The MEPs of the Patriots group nevertheless succeeded in forcing a debate in the European Parliament on the threat posed today by the far left in Europe.

The French delegation welcomed the adoption of the request to include a debate on “the rise of political violence attributable to far-left organisations in Europe” in the LIBE Committee (Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs). The adoption of the Patriots initiative, the result of an agreement reached between representatives of the various groups represented in the European Parliament, is a sign that some consensus is emerging on the need to address the issue. (Read more.)

 

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The Physics of Imagination

 From Under the Peach Tree:

Science class in a classical school should teach a story - the human story. This is not only necessary, but I believe it is a moral imperative in a world in which the movies are becoming real: RoboCop and Hal are no longer science fiction.

A classical education should, at its heart, integrate the intellectual, moral, and spiritual, and in the sciences, we rarely see that accomplished well. Either the focus is devoid of theory and application, and leans so heavily on primary sources and their analysis, that students who may have a charism for the sciences find themselves at a disadvantage when trying to pursue the field after high school. Or, the subject matter is taught as a freestanding subject, somehow isolated from the others - and possibly even in opposition to the humanities. Those tend to be primarily focused on application. Many teachers have told me that the sciences, like mathematics, are ‘factual’ and aren’t really meant to be taught ‘classically.’ At a conference with other Catholic science teachers, many echoed that sentiment arguing that it is impossible to teach all that a higher level science class requires and add in any form of discussion. I have always taught the sciences as something that needs both an understanding of history, as well as an experiential aspect, and is incomplete without the ethical and spiritual. In fact, not teaching science ‘classically’ is partially to blame for our dystopian realities, and it does not take any more time to teach in this manner than it does a standard honors science class.

In fact, it may actually take less time, and produce better outcomes.

In science classes, teachers have the unique opportunity to help bridge the gaps by integrating a world often viewed as the antithesis of the spiritual world with the humanities, and asking students to wonder. St. John Newman wrote, “religion is here, and science there, and young men converse with science all day, and lodge with religion in the evening. …young men eat and drink and sleep in one place, and think in another: I want the same roof to contain both the intellectual and moral discipline.” How do we do that in the science class?

A classical education should develop students’ curiosity and help them articulate truths beautifully. Ultimately, education should shape and create a moral foundation. In our modern world, it is essential that highschool science teachers embrace this integration, so that students can articulate and advocate for a moral future in which the sciences will control ever more of our realities. We need nurses who can make ethical decisions, physicists who know where to draw the line on invading digital privacy, and an educated public capable of articulating an informed answer to AI, bots, and modern technological and medical advances. (Read more.)

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The Royal Family at the Foundling Hospital, 1790

Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette contributed a great deal throughout their reign to the care of orphans and foundlings. They patronized foundling hospitals, which the Queen often visited with her children. Above is a picture of an occasion in February, 1790, after their removal to Paris, when the king, the queen and their children toured such a facility, where the nuns cared for abandoned babies and little children. As is reported by Maxime de la Rocheterie, the young Dauphin, soon to be an orphan himself, was particularly drawn to the foundlings and gave all of his small savings to aid them.



(Pictures from L'Affaire Madame Royale) Share

What’s Going on in England?

 From Charles Coulombe:

Love her or hate her, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland retains a deep hold on the imaginations of those nations which have sprung from her — including our own, as witness the popularity of Downton Abbey. But, as we all know, both President Trump and his Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, Sarah Rogers, have been regularly criticising British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for what they characterise as his attacks on free speech and tolerance for “groomer gangs.” So just what is going on?

Well, quite a bit, actually. But first — what are “groomer gangs?” These are packs of immigrant Pakistani men who in various ways inveigle underage native British girls — some as young as 11 — into prostitution. This erupted into public notice with a documentary and some trials in 2013; but it has been going on since the 1980s. From 2008 to 2013, Sir Keir was director of public prosecutions (DPP), thusly head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). This body conducts criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It has been heavily alleged that he was “soft” on the groomers — warning them instead of prosecuting them. A great many police and local political figures have been caught up in the scandal — most of whom are themselves Pakistani or of Pakistani descent.

Now, there are a lot of connected issues bobbing around Britain right now. “Two-tier policing,” for example, where native Britons guilty of thoughtcrime online are prosecuted and imprisoned, but non-whites who rape, murder, pillage and/or burn are allowed to go free. Non-white protesters are protected; white ones — as in those who protested the July 29, 2024 mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed yoga and dance workshop in Southport, perpetrated by the 17-year-old son of Rwandan immigrants — are harshly suppressed. The internet constantly puts out stories of immigrants attacking native, while the government thunders against racism and tries to throttle freedom of speech. Local council elections the Labour Party might lose are being postponed for various reasons. In a word, Sir Keir seems hell-bent on making 1984 a reality.

Of course, in some ways Sir Keir is simply following Tony Blair’s lead. As Blair began the campaign to push most of the hereditary peers out of the House of Lords, Sir Keir has expelled the last of them. Blair’s invention of a Supreme Court and vivisecting the office of Lord Chancellor had helped make Sir Keir’s pantomime totalitarianism possible. At this point then, the question might be asked — but what of the Tories (a.k.a., the Conservative Party)? (Read more.)

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Atlantis: How Plato’s Story Corresponds to Real History

 From Greek Reporter:

Although most people around the world agree that the original Santorini hypothesis so far made the most compelling case where Plato’s Atlantis once was, unfortunately, there are two critical flaws with that theory, which have allowed critics over the years to maintain the story was just a myth.

The first problem is that the hypothesis entirely discards Plato’s given chronology of 9,600 BC. A more significant problem with the original theory is that the primary island of Atlantis, an island the size of Crete, one Plato said was supposed to be nine kilometers away from the circular island within an island setting, is not around the Santorini backdrop of 1,600 BC.

As is common knowledge, a genuine discovery requires that all elements of a physical description are present, and all are in the given order. In this case, if any of the clues given to us by Plato are missing, the elements are not arranged in the correct order, or the chronology does not coincide with Plato’s given chronology, then all is speculation.

The book ATLANTIS The Find of a Lifetime embarks on a 10,000-year journey that effectively reveals Atlantis’s submerged island and demonstrates how Plato’s 2400-year-old story corresponds to real history. (Read more.)

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