Tea at Trianon: A Great Incompatibility

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, November 3, 2018

A Great Incompatibility

From TFP:

What is at stake is fundamental. Nations are formed around unifying principles to which citizens must give their assent, at least implicitly. America’s unifying principles no longer unify. The principles that defined our socio-political system are those of the classical liberal order. It includes the rule of law, representative government, the defense of private property and guaranteed individual freedoms.

If not kept in check, this liberal order also tends to destroy moral limits and needed social structures. If restrained and ordered, it can be a practical yet secular framework that allows a nation to prosper. Our particular brand of liberalism borrowed heavily from the Christian institutions and virtues with which it clashes. Liberalism, for example, exalts the individual yet needs the Christian family to form character. Liberalism promotes extreme freedom yet counts upon Christian morals to bridle the disordered passions. Liberalism glories in its bland secularism but cannot survive without religion, which gives life meaning and purpose.

Thus, the present liberal order has worn down these sustaining Christian institutions. Without them, the classical liberal order will necessarily die of its internal contradictions. Many astute political observers recognize this while others still entertain hopes of reviving this order. (Read more.)

julygirl said...: First of all this Country's morality, what is left of it, is based on Judeo-Christian. not merely Christian morality. So called "Progressives" have no new ideas. They merely act on knee jerk resistance to anything proposed by the sitting Administration. Current Liberal activists have no moral foundation unless they drag some form of it out to use to undermine the President's efforts to put this Country back on stable fundamentals so it can proceed into the future without losing ground to foreign interests that exploit us. As far as the President's insults, none of his detractors seem to catch on that he does that for attention and to distract the opposition from what is really going on. He throws them out like a ball of yarn and sends everyone scurrying after it.; November 3, 2018 at 11:16:00 AM EDT