Tea at Trianon: Let Them Eat Kale

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

Friday, July 20, 2012

Let Them Eat Kale

It was the revolutionaries who were telling people what to eat, not Marie-Antoinette.

Vegetarianism during the French Revolution is most often traced to the political writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He was a philosopher who greatly influenced the revolutionaries, says Tristram Stuart, author of the book The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism: From 1600 to Modern Times.
Rousseau writes in Emile, his treatise on education:

"The indifference of children towards meat is one proof that the taste for meat is unnatural; their preference is for vegetable foods, such as milk, pastry, fruit, etc. Beware of changing this natural taste and making children flesh-eaters, if not for their health's sake, for the sake of their character."
Stuart takes it further. "When revolutionaries fought in the French Revolution, some of them got bound up in this idea that animals, too, were in need of liberation from oppression and from slavery," Stuart says, "and therefore, they built animal rights into their revolutionary ideology." (Read entire article.)

Mrs. Rudd said...: Uh-huh. Did Rousseau have children? On the nights when Mrs. R was at her bridge club, did he ever ask them, "Okay kids, what do you want for dinner? Hot dogs with lots of ketchup or yummy broccoli au gratin?"

And when he got his answer, I'm sure he started a culinary tradition by saying, "Okay, but you still have to have your vegetables. Pommes frites on the side, and no argument."; July 20, 2012 at 8:52:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Rousseau had several children with his mistress but he gave them all to an orphanage when they were small. Strange man.; July 20, 2012 at 9:57:00 AM EDT
julygirl said...: There are amino acids and various nutrients that our systems require which can only be derived from meat, but we should still only eat small portions and not necessarily daily. One should not pursue vegetarianism without the adequate knowledge to do so healthily. Unfortunately most Americans do not eat enough fresh vegetables and that is why there are so many health problems by the time we reach our 50s.; July 20, 2012 at 6:03:00 PM EDT