Tea at Trianon: How Emotionalism is Slowly Replacing Rationalism

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, November 17, 2016

How Emotionalism is Slowly Replacing Rationalism

From Intelletual Takeout:

Been offended? Proclaim it from the housetops… or at least from Facebook and Twitter. Feeling marginalized at college? Demand a safe space. Need some way to express your anger at police violence? Loot a store or riot in the streets. It would seem that the repeated commands we’ve been fed in recent years to “let it all hang out,” or “express what you’re feeling” have been taken to heart.

But considering that self-command over one’s emotions was believed to be the wiser course for years, we should ask ourselves whether our full blown embrace of emotions is a good thing. Is it possible that we have embraced the emotional outpouring in life because it is one of the few weapons with which we have left to work? Have we marginalized rational thinking and reasonable discourse to such an extent that the only way we can get our point across is to yell, scream, cry, or rant? Although it’s never stated outright, Jane Austen’s Elinor is clearly portrayed as the stronger sister because of the control she exhibits over her emotions. Perhaps Americans would be stronger as a nation if more of her citizens stopped playing up their emotions and instead practiced greater self-command. (Read more.)