Tea at Trianon: A Bitter War of Words

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, April 4, 2019

A Bitter War of Words

From Chronicles:

Political union in the E.U. could only ever be achieved, therefore, if imposed against the will of the people of Europe. But on a deeper level I am convinced that this war of words between the French and the Italians is not just between their governments but between their peoples. To concede that there are differences between the French and the Italians, or between the citizens of any nation, is virtually verboten these days. To “stereotype” national differences is almost as toxic as talking about the differences between men and women.

Let us not forget: The nation-state is the Devil Incarnate as far as the unholy alliance of global capitalists of the right and global liberals of the left is concerned. To the former, it is an obstacle to profit; to the latter, the root of all evil. Given the takeover by this left-right global alliance of the vital organs of Western culture (which reminds me of the short-lived alliance between Nazi Germany and communist Russia in 1939), it is hardly surprising that the media coverage of the shouting match between the French and Italian governments has been a classic example of fake news. The stock phrase in all the reporting is “after months of provocation by Rome.” The real explanation, though, is pretty obvious. Macron, an ex-merchant banker at Rothschild and minister in the last Socialist government, married to a woman old enough to be his mother with whom he has no children, is the perfect darling of the liberal elite. He is perhaps their last hope in Europe. As a result, the French are endlessly described by the media as the reasonable and right victims of the nasty and hysterical populist Italians. (Read more.)