Tea at Trianon: Totally Alone

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

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Totally Alone

From Life News:

The Chinese Communist Party’s One Child Policy had devastating effects on families that still are being felt years after its end. The oppressive population control measure, instituted in 1980 and ended in 2015, included forced sterilizations and forced abortions as well as severe penalties and job losses for families who violated the law. Now, researchers are blaming the policy for another growing problem: no one to care for aging Chinese citizens.
The Macau Daily Times reports at least 1 million older adults in China are worried about a lack of support in their old age because their only child died. “A child’s death is devastating to all parents. But for Chinese parents, losing an only child can add financial ruin to emotional devastation,” said Lihong Shi, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University. “That’s one conclusion of a research project on parental grief I’ve conducted in China since 2016.” (Read more.)