Tea at Trianon: The Hidden Causes of Obesity

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

Monday, October 2, 2017

The Hidden Causes of Obesity

From Return to Order:

To look at the obesity crisis through this lens invariably means looking at our vulnerabilities and what we crave for the most but cannot achieve. Going deeper into the problem, we see that it is order that we desire, but death and its meaning brings disorder to our lives. The absurdity of life eventually stares us all in the face and so, to remain sane, writes the aforementioned Becker, we must refuse to acknowledge that we die. This of course flies in the face of reality because (some soon, others later) the undeniable truth is that we all will die.

For an irreligious person, this conclusion is pure insanity. Although certain, we spend very little time thinking about death, and yet death is one thing we should make sure to get right, because there is no second chance. However, our culture discourages such conversations since it is viewed as kind of dark and not uplifting.

There are two major arguments supporting death as an important conversation for dealing with reality and even with obesity. First, the denial of death shapes the way we live and has led us to a hatred of children and life. This taints our entire society. (Read more.)