Tea at Trianon: My Truth, Your Truth

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

Saturday, March 25, 2017

My Truth, Your Truth

From The Stream:

Tomi’s tweet represents the individualism of modern culture. It does not represent the constitutionalism of the Founders. For limited government to survive, society must share an absolute moral code. How can we respect someone else’s rights to life and liberty if we do not agree on what life and liberty even mean? Tomi isn’t alone in her “my truth, your truth” universe. She’s joined by a growing number of people who value unrestricted freedom above any moral standard.

Stream contributor Joshua Charles reflected on this after the Milo Yiannopoulos uproar. He wrote, “Conservatism without virtue is not conservatism.” For some this statement may be obvious, but to a growing number of people it isn’t. That’s because people aren’t taught what “conservative” means anymore. Radio host Steve Deace addressed this in his Conservative Review column, “I Know Why I’m a Conservative. Do You?” He writes:

Many people calling themselves conservatives don’t know what “conservatism” means. … This is why we fall for the likes of provocateurs with troubled souls or flat-out charlatans provided they produce anti-Left click bait. Conservatism is merely defined by opposition to the Left these days, simply because conservatism itself is undefined these days.
(Read more.)