Tea at Trianon: This Will End in Tears

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

Thursday, January 29, 2009

This Will End in Tears

Gerald Warner waxes prophetic. I hope he is wrong about the future, simply because I do not wish for such disaster to befall my country. (Via Laudem Gloriae) To quote Mr. Warner:

What we are experiencing, in the deepening days of a global depression, is the desperate suspension of disbelief by people of intelligence - la trahison des clercs - in a pathetic effort to hypnotise themselves into the delusion that it will be all right on the night. It will not be all right....

It is questionable whether the present political system can survive the coming crisis. Whatever the solution, teenage swooning sentimentality over a celebrity cult has no part in it. The most powerful nation on earth is confronting its worst economic crisis under the leadership of its most extremely liberal politician, who has virtually no experience of federal politics. That is not an opportunity but a catastrophe.

Anonymous said...: Well, I generally believe in President Obama being one of younger generation; at least, I hope he is capable. As his decision of tackling the crisis not only concerns America, but also the whole world.; January 29, 2009 at 2:39:00 PM EST
elena maria vidal said...: I hope so, too. But so far, I am not pleased with his efforts to further extend abortion.; January 29, 2009 at 2:51:00 PM EST
El Jefe Maximo said...: It is no secret that I am not a supporter of the President. Quite aside from his policies on abortion (of which I likewise disapprove) his fiscal policies are apt to be ruinous.

The amounts of money that President Obama's "stimulus" package proposes to spend make one's hair stand on end: and are gargantuan for even this country. The bill presently pending before the Congress proposes to cut taxes by over 200 billion dollars -- but then to spend over twice that amount: most of which will not go to create jobs, or address the country's underlying problems.

The government is going to need to borrow well over a trillion dollars just for the TARP program, and for this "stimulus" (Limbaugh accurately calls it "Porkulus.") That doesn't include the borrowings regular budget which is already in deficit.

I do not think they can borrow that much money -- they'll have to print it. The resultant inflation may well wreck the value of the currency, and, probably not incidently, cheat our creditors. I wonder what all the foreign holders of our Treasury securities are going to think of that? I just hope we don't get a war.; January 29, 2009 at 3:51:00 PM EST