Tea at Trianon: The Sexual Revolution of the Middle Class

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

The Sexual Revolution of the Middle Class

Even the old Marxists had higher standards than some of our contemporaries.

On the other hand, thus spake Lenin (most of our readers will be astonished): "'Freedom of love' [sexual freedom]...is not a proletarian but a bourgeois demand." He also said: "Revolution...cannot suffer license and orgies. License is decadence. It seeks intoxication [another translation says drunkenness] for stimulus or stupefaction. But the proletariat does not need to intoxicate itself anymore. We need clarity, clarity, and still more clarity.... Self-discipline and self-command is no slavery...." Lenin also said: "Promiscuity in sexual matters is bourgeois. It is a sign of degeneration." And Stalin outlawed abortion. Of course, Communism is not the answer.

Alexandra said...: Wow, that was interesting! Thanks for sharing. :); November 6, 2007 at 9:44:00 AM EST
Anonymous said...: If a nation is striving for an 'ideal' culture, degenerate practices are certainly going to keep it from achieving that. But in our culture, we have the freedom to make bad and even immoral decisions, even ones that affect everyone around us. We have all paid the price of freedom in many ways. That is why one must rely on Our Heavenly Father, and not the 'State' to chart one's course and guide one's decisions on morality. And even then, we stubbornly stumble into willfulness.; November 6, 2007 at 10:24:00 AM EST
elena maria vidal said...: Thanks, Alexandra!

Good point, Alaughland!; November 6, 2007 at 10:25:00 AM EST