Tea at Trianon: The Morality of Borders

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, August 2, 2021

The Morality of Borders

From Crisis:

The United States came into existence during this philosophical shift. While the founders were heavily influenced by Locke, they managed, with the help of more traditional philosophers like Edmund Burke, to avoid the excesses of the Enlightenment that ravaged France. Over the years, there was a tension between these competing conceptions of freedom, but a more traditional understanding of the individual’s place in society remained influential. Even during the great waves of immigration, for example, the right to immigrate was balanced with the ability of the society to assimilate newcomers. When the numbers got high enough to overwhelm the process, restrictions were implemented and the existing order was maintained.

Today, the modern conception of freedom dominates our institutions. The individual is seen as radically autonomous from all outside forces. Every attempt at self-expression, even to the point of attempting to change one’s own gender, is celebrated as authentic and distinctly American.

As evidence of this institutional view, Schindler cites the plurality opinion in the 1992 Supreme Court case Planned Parenthood v. Casey. As Schindler notes, at issue in this opinion is the core of the human relationship, the relationship between mother and child. In trying to define this relationship, justices Kennedy, Souter, and O’Connor write: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” (Read more.)