Tea at Trianon: The Logic of the Meat Grinder

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

Friday, June 3, 2022

The Logic of the Meat Grinder

From American Greatness:

We’ve created—and continue to create—vast numbers of graduates waving expensive certificates with too few high-status jobs for them to walk into. Understandably, those kids aren’t impressed with this state of affairs. We’ve promised too much to the poets and professors who’d make better plumbers and police officers.

The most desirable professions—law, medicine, academia, and media—have cratered. The result? Millions of aggrieved young people fighting millions of other aggrieved young people for fewer and fewer places at the table. Now they serve macchiatos and mung bean salads to those who did exactly what they did. Meanwhile, greedhead landlords suck one-third of their shrinking wages in rent for houses they’ll never call homes.

Yes, it’s easy to say, “They shouldn’t have gone to college.” But if everyone you meet tells you, “It’s raining,” do you first conduct a thorough meteorological investigation, or do you tend to take their word for it? Arthur Miller wrote that an era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted. (Read more.)